South Korea’s Mindy Kim fired a career-low 64 on Thursday to grab a two-shot lead after the first round of the LPGA State Farm Classic.
South Korean Jiyai Shin and Australian Sarah Kemp were tied for second on 66, while Brittany Lincicome — the winner last week at the ShopRite Classice — birdied her final hole for a 67 that put her tied for fourth with Taiwan’s Yani Tseng and Juli Inkster.
Kim’s round included five birdies in a row from the second hole. After a bogey at the ninth, she birdied four more holes coming in — 11, 12, 14 and 17.
Kim, who has three top-10 finishes this year, has the lead at an LPGA event for the first time, and she admitted she was nervous.
“I did not expect this at all,” she said. “I hit the ball great today. I hit everything close. I think that’s what made (the round).”
Her lone bogey was a piece of bad luck, with her tee shot plugging in the soft ground in an unplayable lie.
Kemp’s round included seven birdies and a bogey, her birdies tending to come in pairs. She opened with two straight birdies at the first and second, but gave a shot back with a bogey at the fourth before a birdie at the par-five sixth.
Coming in she made back-to-back birdies at 12 and 13, and at 15 and 16 thanks to a hot putter.
“I didn’t hit it spectacularly close, but I holed the putts. Ten-footers, 12-footers, I made a 30-footer. I didn’t have any two footers, but I putted well enough to hole enough 10- to 12-footers for birdies,” she said.
The Aussie’s long bomb was a downhill, left-to-right breaking putt that won her a bet with caddie Danielle Downey.
“My caddie has a really nice watch that I want,” Kemp said. “I said as we were walking up, ‘If I hole this putt you’ve got to give me that watch.’
“She said, ‘yeah, yeah, sure.’ So I holed it and she gave me her watch.”
Shin was ranked number one in the world when she arrived here last year, but missed the tournament as she underwent an appendectomy.
Now ranked third in the world, Shin tied for second in New Jersey last week and said she was buoyed by that performance. “I have great memories from last week,” Shin said. “When I practiced on this course, I felt really good. I feel ready.”
