CLIFTON, New Jersey — Rose Zhang tied record with a 9-under 63 to take a two-stroke lead over Madelene Sagstrom in the LPGA Cognizant Founders Cup as Nelly Korda was six shots back.
Korda put herself in position for a record sixth straight win on the LPGA Tour, shooting a relatively mistake-free 3-under 69 in the first round of the Cognizant Cup.
The round of four birdies and a bogey on the Upper Montclair Country Club left the 25-year-old American four shots behind early leader Madelene Sagstrom, who had a 65 on a course she loves.
Teeing off just before 8 a.m. EDT on the back nine with defending champion Jin Young Ko of South Korea and 2022 titlist Minjee Lee of Australia, Korda didn’t do much for the first eight holes and only seemed to get going when she rolled in a 10-foot birdie on her ninth hole to get to 1 under. She had short birdies on No. 2 and No. 9, both par-5s, to finish.
“There is still three more days,” said Korda, who used her short game to save par a couple of times.
“You still have a lot of things that you – I know the weather is not supposed to be great and there is just different factors that go into the rest of the tournament. So it´s definitely nice to get a good round in. You know, still a long, long ways away from Sunday,” she added according to AP.
Korda, who fulfilled a childhood dream by walking on the red carpet at the Met Gala on Monday, was followed during her round by about 100 fans, who politely cheered her birdies on the course roughly five miles from New York. Among the group were five women wearing black T-shirts with “Everyone Watches Nelly Korda” on the front.
Sagstrom, a Swede who shot an opening-round 63 and finished third two years ago, had six birdies, an eagle and a bogey playing in the first threesome off the back nine. She finished 10th here last year.
“This golf course first of all suits my eye really well,” Sagstrom said. “I´ve been playing around with the ball flight a little bit. My coach, Hans (Larsson), is in town. This is the third year he´s here, too. We love the golf course.”
Marina Alex, a native of nearby Wayne, New Jersey, was in a group at 68, along with Jin Hee Im of South Korea and Grace Kim of Australia.
Korda was tied at 69 with a large group that included Hannah Green of Australia, who won the Los Angles Open two weeks ago for her second victory on tour this year. There was no event last week so she is going for her second straight win.
“I´m still a little bit surprised I´ve had two wins this year, I´ll be honest,” Green said. “Wilshire, obviously I really love it there. Singapore was a great putt on the last. I just want to keep putting myself in contention and having those moments of trying to win the trophy on Sunday.”
Lee and Ruoning Yin of China, who won the Women´s PGA Championship at Baltusrol in New Jersey last year, were in a group at 2-under. Ko shot 72.
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