The LPGA Drive On Championship is the first regular tournament of the LPGA Tour season and after the first day Nelly Korda (-6) and Lydia Ko (-6) lead the ranking with respective rounds of 65 strokes. One in the morning and another in the afternoon. If the American circuit had to write down its dream start, it wouldn’t be far from this. The tournament is played at the Bradenton Country Club in Florida, in the city where Korda was born. Meanwhile, Lydia comes from winning the champions tournament last week, the appetizer that served to start the course.
The playing conditions were not easy. The course got tough because the wind started to blow quite a lot and the Bradenton greens are very tricky and fast. Korda, for example, handed in a 65 early in the day with two three-putts, while Ko, without making bogeys, benefited from the wind dropping in the last stretch of the afternoon. The outstanding leading duo has a one-stroke lead over Nanna Koertsz Madsen (-5), who seems ready to make up for lost time last year, and two over a large group of five players including Lucy Li, Sei Young Kim or the Grande winner Ruoning Yin.
One of those who had to suffer those tricky greens was Azahara Muñoz (-2). Notable start of the Malaga player after fighting a relentless battle against the most bare surfaces of the Bradenton course. Her long game was a song to order and composure, with eleven streets taken and sixteen greens, but around the hole she seemed to move through a minefield. She made no less than three three-putts. Only the young Alexa Pano, who was in contention to win last Sunday, drew a worse picture with four three-putts. Of course, Alexa (turn on the TV) ended up with +2.
That’s why Azahara’s start should be highly valued. You have to play very well to be a step away from the top 10 after getting tangled up in three greens. The golfer from San Pedro de Alcántara scored five birdies, with a great partial of four under in her first nine (from 10 to 18) and one final to finish on the 8 and thus remove the bad taste of the three bogeys on holes 3, 4 and 6. She added a total of 33 putts. How to survive the Bradenton greens and not die trying.
Who did know how to handle the greens well was Carlota Ciganda (+4). The Navarrese had a very complicated start in her first tournament of the year, but the explanation was not so much in the putter as in the game from the tee. She caught just six streets and got into some trouble. She made two double bogeys, which weigh down any round of golf, one on hole 1 right at the start, two more bogeys and two birdies. The Navarrese will have to come back this Friday to make the cut, currently set at +1. It’s not impossible, but she needs a very good round.
In the top 25 of the tournament we have as the most outstanding golfers Lexi Thompson (-1), Madelene Sagstrom (-1), Linn Grant (-1), Celine Boutier (-1), Megan Khang (-2) or Marina Alex (-3).
