Just days after her career-best Tour finish at the US Women’s Open presented by Ally, Arpichaya Yubol carried her big momentum into her second appearance at the ShopRite LPGA Classic presented by Acer to take a three-shot lead at -10 after the first day. . Yubol’s 61 is not only the best 18-hole score of her career, but it also tied the tournament 18-hole score record set by Sei Young Kim and Sakura Yokomine in 2018.
The 22-year-old, who admitted to struggling with her confidence ahead of the US Women’s Open, made it look easy on the Bay Course at Seaview, A Dolce Hotel. Starting on the 10th hole, Yubol made his first birdie of the day on the 14th hole and continued his streak of birdies all the way to the 18th hole. Yubol then contributed on the scoreable par 5, adding an eagle to the card from 16 yards out.
“On that hole I was just talking to my caddie. I wanted me to play short and like to land on the hole and I think I can land… I like to land on the green and then the ball can stop and then roll,” Yubol said. “I just try to hit it close and then make birdie, and the ball is in the hole and then I just, okay, today looks good, so I go ahead and keep playing.”
After the turn, Yubol made four birdies between Nos. 3 and 7, reaching double figures under par on No. 7 and seeking her second 59 on Tour and first since Annika Sorenstam (2001) with two holes left. With a par on No. 8, the Thai native took it to within 10 feet on her eagle attempt on the par-5 ninth and unfortunately missed the next birdie putt to close with the first post-round lead of her career at the Tour.
“I feel like I’m just starting to play golf, happy golf like every hole. Because I feel like my confidence is returning from last week at United States Women. It was the best week of my life and that gives me more confidence for this week. I’m just going to happily play golf every hole,” Yubol said. “I didn’t focus on how much I can do, how many less today. I just focus like every shot. I eat more concentration every time, every shot.”
Jenny Shin tied her career-best round of 63 to lead the afternoon players and finish the day in second place (-8). Shin opened with two birdies on his first three holes (10 and 13) and had two more before turning on the entertaining holes 17 and 18. He made three in a row on numbers 3-5 and closed birdie-bogey-birdie to sign his best 18-hole score from the 2021 LOTTE Championship.
“The fact that every hole can be birdied, compared to last week, helped a lot,” said Shin, who is coming off a T19 finish at the US Women’s Open last week. “It’s a little easier to just go after the pin, which I didn’t do at all. So yeah, it was fun. That was the biggest difference: it was fun.”
Narin An, in her debut at the ShopRite LPGA Classic, shot a bogey-free 64 and is in third place at -7. Six of his seven total birdies came in the final eight holes of the round. Seven players are tied for fourth-6, including 2011 ShopRite LPGA Classic champion Brittany Lincicome and LPGA Tour winners Megan Khang, Wei-Ling Hsu and Nasa Hataoka. Amateur invitee and sponsor Rachel Kuehn is among a six-player contingent at -5 (T11), while defending champion Ashleigh Buhai lurks at -4 overall and tied for 17th.
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