Washington (AFP) – US veteran Lexi Thompson birdied two of the last three holes to card a four-under-par 68 and join a six-way tie for the lead at the Meijer LPGA Classic on Saturday. On a day when multiple players threatened but failed to break free atop the crowded leaderboard at Blythefield Country Club, Thompson was tied on 11-under 205 with Spain’s Carlota Ciganda, South Korean Choi Hye-jin, Denmark’s Nanna Koerstz Madsen, Sweden’s Madelene Sagstrom and Sofia Garcia of Paraguay. The leaders were two strokes clear of Australian Karis Davidson, who fired a one-under 71 for 207, with another four players tied on 208.
For Thompson, it’s another crack at a title she missed out on in a playoff last year, and a chance to add to her tally of 11 LPGA titles for the first time since 2019. “Feel good about it,” said Thompson, who is making just her sixth start of the season as she plays a limited schedule. “Hopefully I won’t need my short game as much tomorrow. That’s the goal. I didn’t hit it my best today, but I tried to stay in the moment, stay positive and make the saves when I needed them.”
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Thompson started the day one adrift and after a bogey at the third reeled off three straight birdies at four, five and six. She responded to a bogey at the ninth with birdies at 10 and 11 and after a bogey at 14, birdied 16 and 18. Choi, who was one of four players sharing the overnight lead, had three birdies without a bogey in her three-under 69 and had a chance to take the solo lead but missed a six-foot birdie putt at 18.
Ciganda, also among the first-round leaders, made her fourth birdie of the day at 18 to cap her 69 and keep her name in the leading bunch. Sagstrom, winner of the LPGA Match Play earlier this season, thrust herself into contention when she picked up five shots in the space of three holes with eagles at the fourth and sixth sandwiched around a birdie at the fifth. She had three birdies and three bogeys the rest of the way in a five-under 67.
Garcia had the solo lead at 13 under after an eagle and four birdies in her first 10 holes. But she fell back with three straight bogeys at 13, 14 and 15 before salvaging a share of the lead with a birdie at the last. Koerstz Madsen, who won her lone LPGA title in Thailand in 2022, was 13-under with a two-shot lead after six birdies through 16 holes. But she closed with back-to-back bogeys and said nerves were a contributing factor. “I know some of the swing got really fast at the end, so it’s good that I can go and work on that and know what Swing thought I have to think about when that happens for tomorrow,” she said.
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