MIDLAND, Mich. – Ruoning Yin of China and Atthaya Thitikul of Thailand started on a heater and held it together on their back nine in foursomes Thursday for a 6-under 64, giving them a share of the lead after the match with two others teams. opening round of the Dow Championship.
Ally Ewing and Jennifer Kupcho, Solheim Cup teammates but never partners, had an eagle late in their round and, at 64, joined Thai duo Chanettee Wannasaen and Jaravee Boonchant as the other teams.
The tournament is the only official team event on the LPGA Tour schedule.
Yin and Thitikul, who have both held the No. 1 position in the women’s world rankings for a while, managed just two pars on the back nine – and one of those was on a par 5. But they had six birdies to get into the mix quickly, and played bogey-free with one birdie on the front nine.
Yin said Thitikul’s putter was “so hot you don’t want to touch it.”
“My job was just to hit a shot, just make sure the ball is on the green, and she will make everything,” Yin said. “It’s quite fun. We had a great time there.”
The Thai team played without bogeys, Ewing and Kupcho saw their momentum diminish with their only bogey just after the turn, but they responded with a birdie on the 2nd hole and then an eagle on the par-5 third.
Ewing finishes tied for fifth in the KPMG Women’s PGA in Sahalee and falls one shot short of qualifying for the Olympics. Sahalee is tree-lined and claustrophobic, with solid greenery and thick rough. It played just like a US Women’s Open.
So the Dow Championship was a welcome change.
“We just came off a course that is a mentally demanding course, and you get to play partner golf, which is not something we get to do very often,” Ewing said. “This course is a fun course to play in this format. It’s nice to just have something different and be able to lean on each other to play.
The American team of Jennifer Chang and Annie Park and the Taiwanese team of Wei-Ling Hsu and Ssu-Chia Cheng were at 65 years old.
Lexi Thompson and Brooke Henderson had just three sub-par holes – one eagle and two birdies – to stay in the mix on 66. Also on 66 were English pair Georgia Hall and Charley Hull, a particularly impressive performance considering Hull only played half the course.
This was not a case of her clubs being lost during a flight.
“It was actually good because I haven’t played the front nine on the golf course yet because…” she said.
“It was so busy,” Hall interrupted.
“It was so busy and I wanted to watch the England game,” Hull said, referring to the European Championship. “So I literally said, ‘Let’s go to the pub instead.’”
“So I had to kind of lead her around the front nine,” Hall said. “But we did pretty well.”
It could well be an understatement. They scored four birdies in a row and were tied until closing with a pair of bogeys.
Amy Yang, who won her first major title in the Women’s PGA last week, teamed with Jennifer Song for a 73.
The Friday round consists of ‘fourballs’, which usually results in a higher score.
