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SAMMAMISH, Wash. — Lexi Thompson knew some type of the query was coming after capturing a 4-under 68 and taking the first-round lead Thursday within the KPMG Ladies’s PGA Championship.
Would a significant title change her plans about retiring from taking part in full-time on the LPGA Tour?
“I am simply taking it sooner or later at a time. I made my announcement. I am very content material with it,” Thompson mentioned. “Golf is a loopy recreation, so I am not going to look too far forward.”
Thompson made six birdies on her method to a one-shot lead over Nelly Korda and Patty Tavatanakit.
Teeing off within the afternoon as temperatures climbed into the 80s and dried out Sahalee Nation Membership, Thompson began sizzling with three straight birdies to open her spherical and constructed on final week when she misplaced in a playoff on the Meijer LPGA Basic.
The 29-year-old Thompson, who lately introduced her plans to retire after the season, shot a bogey-free 32 on the entrance 9, capped with a 6-foot birdie on the par-3 ninth. After a bogey at No. 10, Thompson rebounded with birdies at Nos. 12 and 14 earlier than one other bogey on the sixteenth.
She received the final of her 11 LPGA Tour titles on the ShopRite LPGA Basic in June 2019. The 68 is her lowest spherical in a significant since a 67 within the second spherical of the Ladies’s PGA two years in the past at Congressional.
“My method pictures felt nice,” Thompson mentioned. “They felt actually good final week, so simply making an attempt to simplify issues and get in a rhythm with my swing.”
Korda shot 69 within the morning, and Tavatanakit matched it within the afternoon with a bogey-free spherical.
The highest-ranked Korda missed the cuts within the U.S. Ladies’s Open and the Meijer LPGA Basic in her final two begins after successful six of seven occasions, a run that began with a record-tying 5 straight victories.
Korda began on the again 9 and made 4 birdies on her first 5 holes. However components of the morning had been a scramble for Korda because the Douglass fir, pink cedar and hemlock bushes of Sahalee performed their function in making it a problem. A double bogey on the par-4 fourth gap dropped her again to 2 below.
“In case you attempt to be aggressive once you’ve hit it off line, it simply bites you within the butt,” Korda mentioned. “General, I feel I performed fairly effectively. I took my probabilities the place I might and I performed protected nearly all of the spherical.”
Korda made a 15-foot putt on the par-3 ninth gap — her ultimate gap — to take the early lead.
There was one other group of gamers at 2 below, together with Allisen Corpuz, Celine Boutier, Charley Hull and Leona Maguire. Maguire led this match after the third spherical final yr at Baltusrol, however shot 74 on the ultimate day and completed 4 pictures again of the winner, Ruoning Yin.
Taking part in with Korda, Yin rebounded from a tough begin and shot 33 on her second 9 to shoot 71.
“Fortunately hit it fairly straight as we speak. Hit plenty of fairways and greens. But it surely does really feel like a course the place when you’re out of place it is powerful to get again on observe,” mentioned Corpuz, who has an outdoor probability of creating the Olympics for america with a powerful end this week.
The third main of the yr on the LPGA Tour returned to Sahalee, which beforehand hosted in 2016. And the tree-lined course confirmed its issue.
Lilia Vu, who won last week in her return from a again harm, shot 75. Yuka Saso, the U.S. Open winner three weeks in the past, made 4 consecutive bogeys on the again 9 and completed at 2-over 74. Brooke Henderson, who received in 2016, shot 73.
Korda received off to a much better begin than her final main, when she shot 80 within the opening spherical of the U.S. Ladies’s Open three weeks in the past.
Korda’s early run of birdies included three straight between Nos. 13-15 and he or she and went out in 33. She moved to 4 below after a birdie on the third gap — her twelfth of the day — however dropped two pictures on the fourth.
“This complete golf course is so demanding,” Korda mentioned. “I needed to make some fairly good up-and-downs.”
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