– Julia López (-3), Carla Tejedo (-2) and Carolina López Chacarra (-1). That’s how the young Spanish players fare on the world’s top circuit. The three posted under-par rounds in the opening day of the Fortinet Founders Cup, an LPGA Tour event played at the Sharon Heights Golf and Country Club in California.
It’s a notable start, full of nerve and confidence. As if they’d been around here all their lives. Yes, Julia has more experience — she is in her second year, after all — but Carolina is a newcomer and Carla, quite simply, played the first LPGA round of her life. Plis, plas. No sign of being fazed where it matters.
All three Spanish players are inside the provisional cut. Julia sits in twelfth place, in other words up near the top of the leaderboard, eyeing the leading spots, which she has been doing almost every week since the start of the year. Meanwhile, Carla is 28th and Carolina is 40th.
Julia has been brilliant with her approach shots. She barely missed three all day. In fact, her round could have been even better if the putter had come to life. Meanwhile, Carla once again put her characteristic grit on display. She was very solid off the tee and recovered well when she wasn’t on the green. Finally, Carol produced another strong tee-to-green performance. All of them lacked, if anything, a little more touch on the greens.
– Of course, anyone would have looked short on touch on the greens compared with Hyo Joo Kim (-9), the solo leader after the first 18 holes. The performance from the brilliant South Korean has been wild. She needed just 22 putts to complete her round. There are those seven birdies and an eagle, achieved with barely 13 greens to her name.
The thing is it’s not the first time she’s done it. In fact, earlier this year in the second round in Thailand she also needed only 22 putts. As you can see, there’s very little coincidence about it. Her putter is a weapon of mass destruction and she leans on it to be fighting for victories almost every week.
– One shot behind Kim is rookie Dongeun Lee (-7). An outstanding showing in her first round in a regular LPGA Tour event. The Korean had only played the AIG Women’s Open in 2025 and missed the cut. A sensational calling card. She made the same number of birdies and the eagle as Kim, although she slipped up with two bogeys. One shot further back, all at -6, are Polly Mack, Gemma Dryburgh and Jin Hee Im.
– The first round of this Founders Cup, which as its name suggests pays tribute to the brave women who set up the LPGA Tour, produced a rather modest showing from some of the world’s best players. Nelly Korda (-2), Lydia Ko (-1) and Jeeno Thitikul (PAR) are further from the lead than might have been expected. In any case, they have more than enough room to improve.
– Azahara Muñoz (+2) and Carlota Ciganda (+4), the Spanish veterans on the LPGA who are doing everything to support the younger players, did not have the best start. They need to fight back to make the cut on Friday. They also went over 30 putts on the greens and their long game wasn’t as consistent as on other occasions. Carlota only hit 11 greens. They’ll have to go low this Friday.
– The presence of Nastasia Nadaud (-4) in seventh place stands out. The Frenchwoman is an LPGA rookie this year and comes off a win at the Andalucía Costa del Sol Open de España a few months ago, at the Real Guadalhorce Golf Club. This is her second event of the season after the Blue Bay LPGA de China.
– Rose Zhang (-1) carded an under-par round and went straight back to her room to finish the final university assignment she needed to close her chapter at Stanford. Her graduation was last week. Last year she played only 13 tournaments due to various physical issues and this is her second outing in 2026 after the champions’ event where she finished ninth. Her big goal this year is to find continuity. By the way, her father is caddying for rookie Victoria Cui (-1).
– Megan Khang (+3) didn’t have the best start, although for her the week is more than worth it after the fun she had at the Pro-Am playing with the Spaniard Pau Gasol.
