Heavy rains earlier this week left the River Course playing long and soft early on day one of the Kingsmill Championship. Brittany Lincicome went out in the morning wave on Thursday and took the early lead in round one with a 5-under par, 66 for her lowest round since the season opening Pure Silk-Bahamas LPGA Classic. It’s the putter that Lincicome says has been the missing piece for her this season but she was able to get it rolling on Thursday, making it around in 28 putts.
“Finally got the putter rolling my way, which was nice, especially when I had the three to five-footers to save par. Those were going in consistently,” Lincicome told the media. “The greens were faster this year than I’ve ever see them in my life. I think they were faster than any other stop on Tour this year, s that was obviously something I had to adjust to when I got out there because I couldn’t be as aggressive as I wanted to be, so I figured it out early and had some birdies, which was fun.”
The River Course has been a challenge for Lincicome who is making her ninth start there this week, her best finish coming in a T-23 in 2006.
Lincicome holds a narrow lead ahead of Laetitia Beck, Sandra Gal and Sei Young Kim who each carded opening rounds of 4-under par, 67. Beck is coming off the best finish of her career at the Yokohama Tire LPGA Classic where she held the early lead during the week and ultimately finished T-15, relishing the experience and learning to battle her nerves in what was the first event she was in contention on the LPGA Tour. The experienced served her well on what was an up and down day on Thursday with two eagles, three birdies and three bogeys.
Sandra Gal matched her low round of 2016 on Thursday with a 67 to sit one back of the lead at the Kingsmill Resort where she has twice cracked the top-10. Also four-under par on day one is Sei Young Kim, who enjoyed some much needed time off after missing the cut in two of her last four starts.
“Physically and mentally,” said Kim about the break she needed. “The last couple -- before the rest time, before I took the rest time, I had too much thinking and then too much thinking about Olympics and a lot of stress. I've got a lot of stress, yeah. I tried during the off time, took off time, just how to make the relax, and more recognize for my situation, yeah.”
World No.1 Lydia Ko, No.2 Inbee Park and No.3 Lexi Thompson were grouped together on day one but struggled to a collective six-over par with the trio unable to break par on Thursday.
Click here for scores from round one of the Kingsmill Championship.
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