CHRISTINA KIM STILL NOT 100% BUT ENJOYING HER SCOTTISH EXPERIENCE

Christina Kim opened with a 1-under-par 71 to sit in a tie for 14th at the Aberdeen Asset Management Ladies Scottish Open.

“I love Scotland,” Kim said with a smile. “The people are awesome. I’ve hung out with a lot of Scottish people, so I can surprisingly understand them. I think it’s really, really cool that we’re able to have links golf prior to one of our major championships.”

Despite the solid start Kim admitted that she still isn’t feeling 100% after having to withdraw from the Marathon Classic last week.

“I’m definitely not 100 percent,” Kim explained. “I was suffering from heat exhaustion, which I thankfully won’t be feeling this week. But I was having heat exhaustion. I had cramps in my legs and my body just gave up.

“It was five weeks in, and it was just, I wanted to play, and actually the last hole I played last week, I made birdie, but I couldn’t see myself make it to the next tee just from, it was five long weeks, lots of walking, high temperatures.

“So I was just a slab of meat, just kind of getting dragged along the entire golf course last week. I rarely withdraw and I felt terrible about it, but I had to listen to my body and I didn’t want to end up cramping and then end up in pretzel form on like the 13th hole on Friday.”

WEBB HOPING TO TURN SEASON AROUND IN SCOTLAND

Karrie Webb has yet to have the season that she would like as she currently sits in 106th on the LPGA money list but the LPGA and World Golf Hall of Famer is hoping that a trip across the pond following her best play of the year will start to turn things around.

“Yeah, it’s been a bit of an unusual year for me,” Webb admitted. “I haven’t enjoyed how I’ve played much at all but I really did feel at the U.S. Open, I turned a corner a little bit. Probably just more mentally than anything. Just trusting the work that I’ve done and you know, just backing myself a little bit more.

“And I actually played quite well at the U.S. Open. I just didn’t make the putts that I needed to. But I didn’t putt poorly. I just either didn’t read them well or my speed was off every now and then.

“But yeah, I felt that I sort of turned a corner there, and I mean, these two weeks were the highlight of my year. When I set my schedule, I was really excited to play in Scotland for two weeks.”

MAKING MATHS COUNT

Aberdeen Asset Management together with the Scottish Government and North Ayrshire Council has come up with a novel idea to encourage greater enthusiasm for maths. Competitors at this year’s Aberdeen Asset Management Ladies Scottish Open have had to use their arithmetic skills to navigate the course on the first day of play, as the 18 pin flags all have mathematic calculations depicting their number.

The Scottish Government’s ‘Making Maths Count’ initiative ran a competition for primary and secondary schools across North Ayrshire to come up with the calculations to be printed on the flags. A panel of four judges from the competition organizers selected their favorite calculations to be used at the Championships.

“It was interesting to see such creative calculations used on the pin flags at Dundonald today and I’m sure quite a few of them probably caught a few of the players by surprise,” Scotland’s two-time Ladies Scottish Open winner Catriona Matthew said. “Any initiative that can link schooling with sport is great and hats off to the organizers for thinking of something different here at the Aberdeen Asset Management Ladies Scottish Open.”

Making Maths Count is a Scottish Government initiative to encourage greater enthusiasm for maths amongst children and young people, their parents and carers and the wider public.

OF NOTE

Karrie Webb’s 65 is her lowest round on the LPGA Tour since a 64 during the final round of the 2016 CP Women’s Open last August

Webb has gone 71 events since her last win on the LPGA Tour at the 2014 Founders Cup

This is the first event that Webb has led after the opening round since the 2014 HSBC Women’s Champions

Webb and Cristie Kerr, who currently sits in second place, have combined for 60 wins on the LPGA Tour

Since 2002, Kerr has made the cut at every Ricoh Women’s British Open that she’s played with the exception of 2014 when she needed to withdraw during the first round due to injury. In that stretch of 15 events Kerr has tallied 11 top-20 and five top-10 finishes

Stacy Lewis has gone 79 events without a win, with her last victory coming at the 2014 Walmart NW Arkansas Championship; in that timespan, Lewis has 12 runner-up finishes

In 16 starts this season, Lewis has five top-10 finishes, with a season-best runner-up finish at the Bank of Hope Founders Cup

Defending Aberdeen Asset Management Ladies Scottish Open champion Isabelle Boineau shot an opening round 76 (+4)

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“You know, when we were warming up and our first few holes, obviously it was really cold and really windy. I looked at the scoreboard and saw that Cristie Kerr shot 6-under, and I was like, what course did she play today.

"Then I sort of really hung in there through the front nine and made a nice birdie on 9 to turn at 1-under, and then just really started swinging at it well and hitting it quite close and had some good birdie chances and made the most of them.”

-Karrie Webb on her round

Kim Loving Scotland, Webb Turning Season Around and More

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