FRISCO, Texas – Jeeno Thitikul left the fifth inexperienced after a double bogey within the first spherical of the KPMG Ladies’s PGA Championship, changing into affected person and jogged my memory that some missed photographs occur.
“Main, I am going to simply miss it,” mentioned Thitikul, who’s second on the earth rankings for ladies. “The best way you bounce again is much more necessary.”
Thitikul discovered a solution to do it on a sizzling, windy Thursday, ending at 4 beneath 68 for Minjee Lee (69)’s one-stroke lead. Haeran Ryu, Rio Takeda and Somi Lee all shot 70.
Thitikul had 60 footers on three consecutive par-3 holes earlier than following simply that gap within the PAR after which making 5 birdies on the six-hole stretch.
“My putter actually labored,” mentioned the 22-year-old from Thailand, who’s searching for her first main title. “On the Entrance 9, we had plenty of wind and we have been greater than the Again 9, however like putts 7, 8, 9, we have grown our confidence and became a Again 9.”
Thitikul, who lives within the Dallas space, solely wanted 25 putts for PGA Frisco’s Fields Ranch East course. She shall be 199½ toes measured.
Of the 156 gamers, solely 15 beat pars, temperatures reached mid-90s Fahrenheit and there was no bogey-free spherical on the day it felt even hotter. Additionally, after final 12 months’s ladies’s PGA in Treelined Saharry, a suburb of Seattle, there was all the time Texas wind in a extra open format.
Maja Stark, who received the US Ladies’s Open three weeks in the past, shot 75 over 3 times. Defending champion Amy Yang completed with a 76 and was one of many final gamers of the day within the six-hour spherical.
Thitikul performed for top-ranked Nelly Korda (72) and No. 3 Lydia Ko (75).
Korda, who exacerbated his neck damage from tough to neck in Monday’s apply spherical, opened with seven consecutive pars in a spherical with two birdies and two bogeys. KO was the one group to make birdies on a 513-yard par 5 first gap, however did not make it one other for the remainder of the day.
Korda mentioned he did not really feel any ache, however the two-time main champion mentioned he was affected by ache “solely a spin” in his neck, making it troublesome to sleep at night time.
“Yeah, that is good. Getting higher day-after-day, that is good,” she mentioned. “Each time I get injured in my neck simply because I used to be injured final 12 months, it takes a bit longer than normal.
Korda opened with seven pars, together with a 317-yard par-4 seven-hole, the place he slammed a 294-yard drive right into a valley simply off the greenery. Her first pitch from there bouncing off the inexperienced edge and rolling down the slope to the place she was. Korda hit the following shot two toes.
Thitikul’s fifth gap started with an out-of-range drive and penalty. Her birdie streak started close to 18 toes earlier than the eighth size, close to seventh place. She rolled on a 35-foot birdie on No. 17, lacking out on making greater than twice that size at 434 yards and par 4 18th.
Lee, the two-time main winner, a 29-year-old Australian, hasn’t received since 2023. She opened on Thursday with a bogey and completed with two bogeys on the ultimate three holes. Within the meantime, she made seven birdies.
“They really feel like they’re fairly mushy bogeys… nicely, at 16, it is a bit mushy and clearly the primary gap is a par 5. You need to a minimum of make a birdie or par,” Lee mentioned. “Clearly there shall be bogeys, however for me I simply assume they’re affected person. As soon as I make a bogey, I attempt to again up one thing higher than that. I am unable to transfer ahead earlier than myself, particularly in this sort of climate.
Lee bogeyed the twelfth gap for 425 yards, the place she drove to a thick, tough tough from the appropriate, then to a tough tough on the left. She saved par on the par 3 on the thirteenth by blowing it as much as 5½ toes from the bunker and had consecutive birdies to achieve 5 beneath. Her late bogey then got here, lacking a 7-foot par on the sixteenth and hit her strategy on the 18th.
