Although it’s been a steady season for Sun Young Yoo, there’s been just one top-10 finish.
However, after the first round of the Blue Bay LPGA at the Jian Lake Blue Bay Golf Club, Yoo is en route to her best finish of the season, as she shot a 7-under-par 65 and leads by two.
Yoo was bogey-free on Wednesday, making four birdies on the front nine and three more on the back nine, including on the par-4 18th to end her day.
Yoo admitted that ‘pretty much everything’ was working well for her during the first round, saying she was hitting her irons well, making good putts, hitting crisp wedge shots, and didn’t make any mistakes.
All of that adds up to a near-flawless opening round.
“Pretty solid overall,” she said.
Yoo has two wins on the LPGA Tour but none since 2012. She explained, with golf, everyone ‘goes through ups and downs.’
“I saw a lot of positive things in myself today, so hopefully I can get it going,” she said.
Yoo explained there wasn’t much of a change from weeks prior to her round Wednesday, her lowest round of the season (she shot 66 at the Bank of Hope Founders Cup in March).
“Swing-wise, I kept the same thing. I just tried to have fun out there, and actually I had a lot of fun today,” said Yoo. “Not too much going on. I like it.”
Yoo leads by one over China’s own Xiang Sui, who shot a 6-under-par 66 with just one bogey.
A shot further back is a group of six golfers including Ashleigh Buhai, Jeong Eun Lee, Pernilla Lindberg, Na Yeon Choi, Lee-Anne Pace, and Lizette Salas, who has been on a tear during the LPGA Tour’s recent Asian Swing, having notched three top-5s in four starts.
“It's got to come to an end somehow, and I'm just really fortunate that I had this Asia Swing and really excited to go back to the States and play the final event,” said Salas with a smile.
Four golfers are a shot further back at 4-under par, including new No. 1 Sung Hyun Park, who officially became the first rookie in this LPGA Tour’s history to earn the top spot on the Rolex Rankings prior to Wednesday’s opening round.
Sisters Nelly and Jessica Korda along with Moriya and Ariya Jutanugarn were paired together in two separate groups on Wednesday, and both Korda’s and Jutanugarn’s fired matching rounds (1-under-par 70s for the Korda’s and 3-under-par 69s for the Jutanugarn’s).
Jessica Korda managed to bounce back from an quadruple-bogey 9 on the par-5 3rd hole with six birdies on the day to get into red figures.
The Korda and Jutanugarn sisters will be paired together again on Thursday.
Alena Sharp, looking for her first LPGA Tour win, has employed the services of two-time LPGA Tour winner Gail Graham as her caddie for this week’s event in China and next week’s season finale in Florida as her usual caddie, Sarah Bowman, recovers from ACL surgery. She shot a 3-under-par 69 Wednesday.
Last week’s winner Shanshan Feng sits at 2-under par, five shots back of the lead.
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