FRISCO, Texas — Jeeno Thitikul walked off the fifth inexperienced after a double bogey within the first spherical of the KPMG Girls’s PGA Championship, reminding herself to remain affected person and that some missed pictures will occur.
“Majors, you are going to miss anyway,” stated Thitikul, who’s No. 2 within the girls’s world rating. “A technique to bounce again, it is extra vital.”
Thitikul discovered a method to do this on a sizzling and windy Thursday, ending with a 4-under 68 for a one-stroke lead over Minjee Lee (69). Haeran Ryu, Rio Takeda and Somi Lee all shot 70.
Thitikul adopted that solely gap over par with a par earlier than she made 5 birdies in a six-hole stretch, with a 60-footer on the par-3 eighth gap in the course of three in a row.
“My putter went rather well,” stated the 22-year-old from Thailand, who’s in search of her first main title. “Within the entrance 9, we had plenty of breeze going, and greater than the again 9, however like [made] putts 7, 8, 9, which boosts the boldness up, making the flip to the again 9.”
Thitikul, who lives within the Dallas space, wanted solely 25 putts on the Fields Ranch East course at PGA Frisco. Her makes measured 199½ toes.
Thitikul performed with top-ranked Nelly Korda (72) and No. 3 Lydia Ko (75).
Korda, who aggravated a neck harm with a shot out of the tough throughout a follow spherical Monday, opened with seven consecutive pars in a spherical that had two birdies and two bogeys. Ko was the one one within the group to make a birdie on the 513-yard, par-5 first gap, however did not make one other the remainder of the day.
Although Korda stated she would not really feel ache hitting pictures, the two-time main champion stated she has ache “simply with rotation” of her neck and that it’s arduous to sleep at night time.
“It is higher, yeah. Getting higher on daily basis, which is good,” she stated. “Simply because I injured it final yr, at any time when I do injure my neck, it takes somewhat bit longer than regular. … Simply takes me like per week to sort of recuperate once I tweak my neck now.”
Korda opened with seven pars, together with on the 317-yard, par-4 seventh gap, the place she hit a 294-yard drive right into a valley simply wanting the inexperienced. Her preliminary pitch from there ricocheted off the sting of the inexperienced and rolled again down the slope to the place she was. Korda hit her subsequent shot to 2 toes.
That fifth gap for Thitikul began with a drive out of bounds and a penalty. Her birdie streak started with an almost 18-footer at No. 7 earlier than the lengthy one on the eighth. She rolled in a 35-foot birdie at No. 17 and simply missed making one other greater than twice that lengthy on the 434-yard, par-4 18th.
Two-time main winner Lee, a 29-year-old Australian, hasn’t gained since 2023. She opened Thursday with a bogey and completed with two bogeys over the past three holes. In between, she made seven birdies.
“I really feel like they had been fairly smooth bogeys. … Effectively, on 16, that was a bit smooth and clearly the primary gap is a par 5. I needs to be making birdie or par, as a minimum,” Lee stated. “Clearly, there might be bogeys, however I feel for me, I simply attempt to keep affected person. If I make a bogey, I simply attempt to again it up with one thing higher than that. Cannot get forward of your self, particularly in this sort of climate. I feel it is extra simply the warmth that is draining your focus.”
Lee bogeyed the 425-yard twelfth gap, the place she drove into thick tough to the proper and from there went into the left tough. She saved par on the par-3 thirteenth by blasting from a bunker to 5½ toes and had consecutive birdies to get to five underneath — the bottom by anybody within the first spherical. Then got here her late bogeys, lacking a 7-foot par on the sixteenth and hitting her strategy on the 18th right into a bunker.
