Players got off to a hot start Thursday at the Meijer LPGA Classic presented by Kraft where 7-under par leads midway through round one. Dori Carter, Lizette Salas and Katherine Kirk sit atop the leaderboard with opening rounds of 64. While the three have struggled in the start to this season, they each found a bit of confidence on Thursday.
“You've got to start off well and it's a confidence boost to get off on round one,” said Carter. “However, it's still just Thursday and so you've got three more rounds, 54 more holes, and anything could happen. I wouldn't go home and relax. I'm going to probably stay sharp and try to focus on tomorrow and try to keep building, keep climbing up the leaderboard.”
Carter has made five of 16 cuts this season, her best finish coming in a T-34 at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. Salas is looking to get her first win of 2015 as well but has been playing some great golf as of late, finishing in the top-20 the last three weeks including T-14 at the U.S. Women’s Open. She posted a bogey free 64 today that included five birdies and an eagle.
“Made some pretty good plus 20‑footers for birdie and just made basically zero mistakes today,” said Salas. “That eagle on 11 really kind of kept me going and really helped me target the pins today. Just really stayed aggressive with the putting and it's really coming along. My finish at the Open kind of gave me that extra boost of confidence to really go low and that's what I did today.”
Kirk also made eagle at 11 in what was a rollercoaster day for the Australian that included two bogeys and seven birdies.
“I feel like I've been doing all the right stuff, I just haven't been scoring well,” said Kirk. “So it's nice to see the hard work pay off and know that you can still contend with all these youngsters.”
Kirk is coming off back-to-back missed cuts and looking for her first win since the 2010 Navistar LPGA Classic.
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