PORTLAND, Ore. — Perrine Delacour shot a 9-under 63 in morning rain Thursday at Columbia Edgewater to take the first-round lead within the Portland Basic.
Winless on the LPGA Tour, Delacour opened with a birdie and ran off 5 straight on Nos. 3-7 in a front-nine 30. The 29-year-old Frenchwoman added birdies on Nos. 14, 15 and 17 within the bogey-free spherical on the tree-lined format.
“Properly, the aim immediately was to be dry.” Delacour mentioned. “We knew it was going to be moist, so my principal aim was to attempt to get my membership as dry as we will, which we did fairly good with my caddie.”
Gina Kim was second after a bogey-free 64, her finest rating on the tour. Additionally winless, she has missed 5 cuts in a row.
“I am actually excited,” mentioned Kim, a 23-year-old former Duke participant. “I believe immediately was the place I used to be capable of see loads of my onerous work repay. It has been powerful this complete season, and I saved grinding by way of it. I saved believing in myself that perhaps, you realize, one in all nowadays I am going to have the ability to catch a superb spherical like this.”
Second-ranked Nelly Korda was at 65 with Linn Grant and Olivia Cowan.
“I simply knew with the quantity of rain we had been getting all through the day that I might simply be slightly bit extra aggressive,” Korda mentioned. “So, ensuring that I used to be flying to the proper numbers and taking lifeless goal at flags.”
Sidelined by lower-back ache within the spring, Korda is again in kind with the Solheim Cup in opposition to Europe a couple of weeks away in Spain.
“I am simply actually specializing in this week, and as soon as I get to that week, I will deal with that week,” Korda mentioned. “I am simply attempting to take it one spherical at time, play some constant golf and, hopefully, I can take that into Spain.”
Grant received the Dana Open in July in Ohio for her first LPGA Tour title.
“It is mushy on the market, so for those who sort of have your yardages in management there are going to be loads of birdie alternatives,” Grant mentioned. “I holed a couple of of them, and it was only a good spherical.”
Defending champion Andrea Lee was at 66 with Megan Khang, Nanna Koerstz Madsen, Sarah Kemp and and Pavarisa Yoktuan.
“The course is unquestionably enjoying so much completely different in comparison with prior years,” Lee mentioned. “It was so moist on the market.”
Khang received her first LPGA Tour title Sunday in Vancouver, British Columbia, at Shaughnessy, one other tree-lined gem designed by Columbia Edgewater architect A.V. Macan.
“I bear in mind in like junior golf we had a visitor speaker at one in all our tournaments, Tom Watson, and I bear in mind him telling us you possibly can both go on the market and say like, ‘Oh, it is raining, this stinks.’ Or you possibly can go on the market and say, ‘Hey, it is raining for everybody. Simply cope with it and make the most effective of the situations.’ That is the mentality I sort of tackle now.”
She chipped for eagle on No. 7.
“It was fairly cool,” she mentioned. “It had been a sort of sluggish begin.”
Angela Stanford, at 45 years previous, was within the group at 67.
“I really like this golf course,” Stanford mentioned.
Two-time champion Brooke Henderson bogeyed the final in a 69.
High-ranked Lilia Vu opened with a 71. She tied for third final yr.
Lexi Thompson bogeyed the ultimate two holes in a 72. She’s outdoors the highest 150 within the Race to CME Globe and isn’t prone to hold her full LPGA card for subsequent yr at this price. Thompson has made solely two cuts this yr.
