Ariya Jutanugarn, who won the British Open last month, shot a six-under-par 65.
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Lee signed for a five birdie-three bogey round of 2-under 69 to be T11 alongside World Number One Lydia Ko, Jutanugarn holding the outright lead at 6-under, one ahead of Koreans Inbee Park and Sei Young Kim.
Unlike the men’s tournament, in which the top four players in the world opted not to play, not one of the top women who was eligible to play dropped out. Successive bogeys on the third and fourth holes were followed by a birdie on the sixth as the 19-year-old competed in a 60-woman field. And she was grumpy, her husband said, but in a good way because that makes her bear down.
Inbee Park of South Korea, waves after making par on the 17th hole during the first round of the women’s golf event at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2016.
“I’d like to have a family soon and that’s probably my priority maybe the next couple years”, she said. It was more of, you know, whether I can play or not.
Henderson did well to finish at 1-under 70 after a rough start while Sharp bookended her round with birdies for a 72.
As for Park’s thumb, she said it felt much better.
Brooke Henderson battled inconsistency in her first round at the Olympic Golf Course. “Just things like that, we’ve played a lot of golf together – she’s been great and hopefully I’ve been good for Minjee”. On the topic of being in love, Lewis gushed earlier this year, “The biggest thing is I’ve got somebody in my life that’s more important than any golf tournament I’ll ever play in, or any tournament I’ll ever win, and I honestly never thought I would be up here saying that”. Park has carded back-to-back 5-under 66 rounds, and is in the driver’s seat headed into Round 3.
She sensed she was going in the right direction heading to Rio as she piled up four consecutive top-10s. We’re constantly fighting for network TV, and that’s one huge part of this week is the coverage that we get, it’s beyond anything I think we could do just as a tour. After a lot of rest, rehab and finding her groove again over the last two months, Park has experienced the warmest of welcomes in Rio. Actually, on my way to Portland (for a tournament in late June), I pulled out DVDs of a couple of my old wins, and just was trying to see what is different.
“The swing just wasn’t where it needed to be, so we spent some time last night working on it”, Lewis said.
Both got five birdies with no bogeys and sit a shot behind Thailand’s Ariya Jutanugarn.
Chun then chipped in for an eagle at the par-4 ninth, a 324-yard hole, and picked up two more birdies at the 10th and 13th. “We were going to put on a great show anyway”. I did my homework and nobody gave me a good reason why I shouldn’t come.
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“Sometimes when I get made I get more focussed”.
