In Gee Chun posted a 5-under round of 66 to take a two-shot lead at the Evian Championship on Friday in Evian-Les-Bains, France, keeping the 22-year-old South Korean on course for the second major of her career. “But, from the tenth, I wasn’t hitting fairways”.
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“I just seemed to hit a lot of good wedge shots today and hit a lot of good putts, ” said Johnston, coming off a 28th-place tie last week in OH in the DAP Championship.
One notable absentee at Evian this year is Park, who is getting rehabilitation on her troublesome thumb.
While Ko’s play was patchy, with a bogey and only two birdies, her rival Ariya Jutanugarn of Thailand had a day to forget with a 2-over 73 featuring a triple bogey. “It was good to have my mum back on the bag”.”To remember all the seats by the green to be all full of people, for people to cheer our final group on, and the double whammy tears and the New Zealand flag, there’s so many great things about this event”, she said.
Images of Ko’s baby lookalike have been featured around the Evian Championship this week where Ko will begin her title defence tonight. She could still pick up her third major top 10 of the year, but the mountain to climb back into title contention seems about as steep as the adjacent Alps.
Olympic bronze medallist Shanshan Feng and America’s Annie Park are their closest challengers on seven under, while Charley Hull stuttered to a level-par 71 after dropping four shots over the closing stretch. “Like there’s elephants buried under every one of them”.
But it will be hard to match her performance past year, let alone improve it.
Park has won five times on the Korean LPGA tour this year and has yet to make the move to America.
Kim birdied three of the first four holes before her momentum was halted by a scrappy bogey at the long seventh and, after a run of five pars, she picked up five shots over the last six holes in a spectacular finish.
Two-time major victor Brittany Lincicome is a shot behind her in a tie for sixth with South Korean Eun-Hee Ji.
When Ko sank her first birdie of the day, a 15-meter effort on the fifth hole, it drew a rueful smile from Pettersen, who had just missed with her birdie attempt from a similar distance.
Sam Ryder and Keith Mitchell, tied for the first-round lead with Adam Schenk at 64, each shot 68 to drop into a tie for third at 10 under with Canada’s Hughes Mackenzie (64). “I think I made a really good second shot, and then third shot – because I tried really good to visualize my third shot”. And that, after she was three shots off Lexi Thompson’s lead seven holes into the 2015 finale.
Pettersen had a hard day, joining Ariya and American Lexi Thompson, last year’s runner-up, at 2 over.
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U.S. Senior Open victor Gene Sauers, Craig Parry, Jay Don Blake, Kevin Sutherland and Tom Pernice Jr. were 4 under.
