July 07, 2017: Through the first round of the Thornberry Creek LPGA Classic it’s a proven winner and a rookie looking for their big breakthrough tied at the top. Sei Young Kim and Laura Gonzalez Escallon shot matching 7-under-par 65s Thursday from the Thornberry Creek at Oneida course to sit atop the standings by one shot over two golfers. Aditi Ashok shot two under 70 to begin her week.
Aditi started her day with a bogey at the first hole, but bounced back in style almost immediately. Birdies at the third and eighth holes helped Aditi turned at one under.
Aditi moved up to three under by the 14th hole, but a bogey at the 16th hole dropped her back to two under. She is currently lying in T59, five shots off the p
Kim, who notched a victory earlier this year at the Citibanex Lorena Ochoa Match Play presented by AeroMexico and Delta, has three other top-5 finishes on the season, including a tie for fourth at last week’s KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.
It’s been a long time since I played well in the first round, so I’m very blessed to have shot a 7-under. We have three more days, and I’m looking forward to the other days,” she said.
She made eight birdies Thursday, offset by just a lone bogey.
“My shots were solid today, and the greens were softer, so I was able to go after the pins and give myself a lot of birdie opportunities,” explained Kim. “And then putting was good, and I made a lot of birdies.”
Escallon, meanwhile, is in her first year on the LPGA Tour. However, she’s been playing well right out of the gates – she notched a top 10 in her debut, and had a season-best finish (a tie for fifth) at the Manulife LPGA Classic just a few weeks ago.
“I started with a top 10, so that was a dream come true, and I mean, I’m just learning and enjoying it here,” Escallon said about her 2017 season. “I have a great caddie… so that helps just to have fun and enjoy it and try to meet people and get to know the courses.”
Escallon started well – she birdied three of her first four – but couldn’t get anything going during the middle portion of her round. She finished strong, however, birding four of her final five holes.
“I started really hot and then I kind of stumbled a little bit, so my goal was to finish strong, and I did that,” she explained. “It was great.”
Two other rookies, Madeliene Sheils and Min-G Kim, are chasing Kim and Escallon. Sheils and Kim – who hasn’t made a cut yet this season – are both at 6-under.
Sheils credits the work she’s done with her coach, Gabriel Hjerstedt, during an off-week last week (she had played seven-in-a-row up to that point) for her success Thursday.
“I had a really good session with my coach last weekend, and I felt like — I played seven weeks straight, and then I had last week off, and as soon as I like rested and refreshed myself, it was like, oh, my gosh, I can do this, like I’m okay. I saw my coach, and I felt positive going into this whole week,” she explained, as she went bogey-free. “I hit just about every fairway, and I think I might have hit every green for like the first time in my life, so that makes golf really easy, as it turns out.”
Kim, meanwhile, matched Sheils with a bogey-free 66, her best round of the season. She said she’s been getting more adjusted to being a rookie on the LPGA Tour and is feeling more comfortable these days.
At the start of the year, I was like, ‘wait a minute, there are cameras everywhere.’ People are screaming your name and everything, and I was kind of scared of that at first because it was overwhelming. But as I got through it, I started enjoying it more, and I was like, yes, this is what I wanted,” said Kim. “This is what I wanted to do as a young girl, and that’s what really helped me, I think, enjoying the crowd.”
A shot back of Kim and Sheils sits 15 golfers who all shot 5-under-par 67s on Thursday.
The group includes Alena Sharp, Brooke Pancake, Moriya Jutanugarn, and In Gee Chun, who has five top-5 finishes so far in 2017 but has yet to find the winner’s circle.
I had bounced back because I was a little down about my game during the last week, so I tried to enjoy my game again. So I really enjoyed today, so I’m happy now,” said Chun.
Another 15 golfers are a shot further back at 4-under including Charley Hull, Suzann Pettersen and Sandra Gal.
Brooke Henderson, who nearly defended her title at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship – she eventually finished just one shot back of Danielle Kang – finished at 1-under par and admitted there was a bit of an emotional reset this week after last week’s major.
“Last week took a lot out of me being in contention, especially in that last round. It drained a lot of energy, and I’m just trying to rebuild that this week, take a little bit more rest and maybe not practice quite as much and rebuild my energy,” said Henderson.
With 34 golfers within three shots of the lead, Friday will mean a lot of jockeying for position heading into the weekend.
Edited version of LPGA Report
