It didn’t take long for Sung Hyun Park to figure out Pinnacle Country Club.
In her first competitive round at the club, the rookie went out in the morning wave and posted an eight-under par, 63 to take the opening round lead at the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship presented by P&G. Park sits two-strokes ahead of So Yeon Ryu, Ally McDonald and Mel Reid. Stacy Lewis is part of a group including Juli Inkster, Moriya Jutanugarn, Felicity Johnson and Katherine Kirk at five-under par.
The group atop the leaderboard finished just ahead of a band of severe weather that moved through Rogers, Arkansas during the afternoon. Play was suspended for about 45 minutes and resumed at 3:15 p.m. local time.
Friday morning, Park went out in 31, which included a stretch of six consecutive birdies interrupted by her only bogey of the day, and added three more birdies on the back. But Park was scrambling, she hit just eight of 13 fairways, which forced her to make up for it on the greens and she did, making it around in just 24 putts.
“My play was best with putter today, very good,” Park said after her round.
Park hasn’t missed a cut since joining the LPGA Tour and her consistency throughout her first season on Tour has put her atop the Louise Suggs Rolex Rookie of the Year standings. She holds the opening round lead on Tour for the first time since the 2015 LPGA KEB Hana Bank Championship when she went on to finish tied for second.
The morning looked to belong to another rookie, Mel Reid, who made birdie on five of her first seven holes. Her good luck kept rolling on the back nine where she made a hole-in-one at the par three, 11th hole to jump to eight-under par and extend her lead.
“I mean, as soon as I hit it I thought, ‘oh, it's got a chance,'” Reid said about her tee shot at the 11th hole. “I just hit a little 9-iron, so I think it was 135. I just tried to play a 130 shot and it pitched about seven behind it and came back.”
But Reid was unable to continue the momentum and dropped shots on her closing stretch to finish with a six-under par, 65 to sit two-strokes back of Park. Reid’s 65 is her low round on the LPGA Tour in 2017 and turns around a rough stretch for the rookie who missed the cut in her last three starts.
“As soon as I get on a birdie run, I'm not one of those players that get a bit scared,” Reid said. “I keep trying to make birdies.”
Ryu was the lone player from the afternoon wave, following the delay, to crack the top-10. She opened with a bogey-free, 65 following a two-week hiatus. Ryu took some time off after missing the cut in her last start at the ShopRite LPGA Classic, ending the longest running active cut streak on Tour dating back to 2014.
Ryu put in some time with instructor Cameron McCormick and Ian Baker-Finch, who she has worked with on her putting over the last several years. A practice round with Nick Price also gave her an extra boost in confidence. Returning to Arkansas, Ryu felt refreshed and ready to play again.
“I think everything was really smooth from start to end. Especially I was happy with my putting because last time when I played a tournament, I was really struggling with my putting,” Ryu said about her round. “It feels great to be back and hopefully I can have a really great bogey-free round again.”
McDonald sits in a share of second with Reid and Ryu at six-under par after posting her low round of the year. In 2016, McDonald earned her way onto the LPGA Tour through the LPGA Qualifying Tournament where she finished tied for 22nd to earn limited status. Instead, McDonald elected to play a full schedule on the Epson Tour where finished second on the money list, earning a record $110,359, second only to Madelene Sagstrom who won the money title. This season, McDonald has played full-time on the LPGA Tour and makes her 11th start of the year this week and first appearance in Arkansas. Friday, the Mississippi State alum was happy to be back in the south, which gave friends and family a rare opportunity to come out and show their support for McDonald.
“Means a lot. There are few places that my family can get to with the schedule and with my grandparents wanting to watch me,” McDonald said about her parents, four grandparents and friends who made the trip this week. “I'm happy they could all be here, and hopefully I can play well for them.”
Click here for complete scores from the opening round of the 2017 Walmart NW Arkansas Championship.
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