Dream start for the Spanish players at the Ford Championship presented by KCC, a tournament of the LPGA Tour that debuts on the calendar and is held at the Seville Golf and Country Club in Arizona. Azahara Muñoz (-8) and Carlota Ciganda (-8) have both handed in cards of 65 strokes and have climbed to the second place of the tournament just one stroke behind the lead held by the Thai Pajaree Annanarukarn (-9).
Azahara has signed her lowest result in relation to par on the American circuit for more than four years and her best Thursday in almost fourteen. A round to remember. Carlota, on the other hand, has signed her best result of 2024 by far.
Azahara has made 64 strokes with two bogeys, which translates into a sublime ability to produce hits. A show from start to finish. In just five holes she was already running with a partial of four under par, after making birdie on the 3, 4 and adding a grand eagle on the 5. She got one more birdie on the 7 and barely flinched with the bogey on the 9.
On the contrary, it has been a spring that has made her bite again. She signed three more birdies on holes 10, 11 and 12, took a break on 13 and 14, the second bogey of the day fell on 15 and, again, she turned around like a lioness with two more birdies on 16 and 18.
The golfer from San Pedro de Alcántara has been practically infallible from the tee, with 12 out of 13 streets taken. She has also been brilliant in the shots to green, but above all her main weapon this morning in Arizona has been the putter. She only needed 24 putts to complete the 18 holes.
The result of eight under par is the second best of Azahara in her career on the LPGA Tour, where she already has 315 tournaments and 1,124 rounds of golf (already counting this week’s event and this Thursday’s round). It is, therefore, a special day. Her card today is only surpassed by the -9 she signed at the Bank of Hope Founders Cup in March 2019, exactly five years ago. Today’s is the sixth -8 of her career on the best circuit in the world.
It is the second time that Muñoz signs eight under the first day of a tournament on the LPGA. The other time was 14 years ago, at the Tres Marías Championship in Mexico in 2010. She finished 27th and the victory went to Ai Miyazato. That season Azahara was rookie of the year on the LPGA Tour.
Meanwhile, Carlota has handed in an immaculate card, without errors and with eight birdies. Her tee to green game has been fantastic. She only missed one in regulation, took ten streets and needed 28 putts. She has recovered the constants of her game, something similar to what she had shown in Tampa at the Aramco Team Series tournament of the Ladies European Tour, but that she had not yet shown on the LPGA.
The Navarrese started her day on hole 10, opening the can early with a birdie on the 11, which she continued with two more on the 15 and 16. However, the moment she started to fly over the field was at the beginning of her second nine, with five birdies between holes 1 and 6. Another sensational start.
In this way, the Spanish players have placed themselves in the second position, one behind Annarukarn and tied with Gabriela Ruffels, Isi Gabsa and Lilia Vu. In the upper part of the classification have already entered very important players like Hyo Joo Kim (-7), Celine Boutier (-7), Nelly Korda, Maja Stark, Emily Pedersen, Nanna Madsen and Alison Lee. All of them with -6. Also up are Brooke Henderson (-5), Anna Nordqvist (-5) Allisen Corpuz (-5), Megan Khang (-5), Sei Young Kim (-5), Minjee Lee (-4) or Ruoning Yin (-4). All very important names that Azahara and Carlota, with Annarukarn’s permission, have lined up.
