After a three-year absence, it look Stacy Lewis some time to get comfortable at Ko Olina Golf Club again — about seven holes to be more precise.
The former world No. 1 bogeyed the par-4 10th hole to start her opening round of the Lotte Championship. She got back to even before the turn then threw four birdies on the board on the front nine to sign for a 4-under 68 to tie for eighth.
“I played pretty terrible on the front nine,” Lewis said. “I hung in there, though, made a lot of par putts early on … made the turn and got some good numbers into holes and hit a lot of really good shots and was fortunate to make the putts.”
Lewis was the world No. 2 when she last played at Ko Olina in 2013. She tied for ninth at 10 under that week then opted to skip the trip to Hawaii the next three years.
A larger window in the LPGA Tour schedule prompted her return to Hawaii this season. The last three years, the Swinging Skirts LPGA Classic in San Francisco followed the Lotte Championship. But the tournament wasn’t renewed this year, leaving an open week prior to the Volunteers of America Texas Shootout the last week of April.
“Truthfully, not a big fan of where it is in the schedule, just as far as travel-wise,” said Lewis, who entered the week ranked 15th. “But not having a tournament next week in San Francisco was really the reason. I didn’t want too big of a break so it worked out. It’s always nice to come to Hawaii. It’s not hard to say I’m going to go there.”
After her first round back at Ko Olina, Lewis said the greens were softer than she remembered.
“In some aspects it feels a little bit easier to me because in years past it’s been a course I haven’t really played that well on,” she said. “You’re kind of able to go more at flags and free it up.”
Ko hanging on
World No. 1 Lydia Ko has been at the top of the LPGA world for 76 consecutive weeks dating back to October of 2015, but that Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings post is fraught with peril.
The top three players in the world — Ko, ANA Inspiration champion So Yeon Ryu and Ariya Jutanugarn — are paired together in the first two rounds with Ko continuing her recent struggles of not winning in 15 weeks. It is the longest losing streak of her career.
After a 45-minute deluge that flooded parts of the Ko Olina golf course, the three top players worldwide went back to work on seeing who will be No. 1 come Saturday and who will continue to give chase.
Since the British Women’s Open last summer, New Zealand’s Ko has no victories; Korea’s Ryu just won a major championship two weeks ago in Rancho Mirage, Calif., and Jutanugarn of Thailand has won twice.
Jutanugarn had been second for 35 weeks before falling to No. 3 after Ryu’s controversial win over Lexi Thompson at the ANA Inspiration, the LPGA’s first major of 2017. Ryu has finished in the top seven in eight consecutive tournaments and continued her hot streak with a 4-under 68 on Wednesday to tie for eighth.
“It was so much fun to play with them (Ko and Jutanugarn),” Ryu said.
She has a chance to be the new No. 1 soon as well as Jutanugarn. Just seven months ago, Ko had a 6.57-point lead. That has been shaved to 0.91 points entering this week’s event. Ko opened with a ho-hum 1-over 73 and enters today’s second round tied for 86th. Jutanugarn got hot coming in after the rain storm to shoot a 3-under 69 and is tied for 17th with three consecutive birdies at Nos. 15-17.
Chip-in saves Henderson
Brooke Henderson was poised to draw the first square on her scorecard after a messy start on the par-4 second hole, her 11th of the round.
But a nifty chip kept her bogey free on her way to an opening 2-under 70.
Henderson’s tee shot found the water on the right and after a drop, her approach landed on the edge of the green but rolled to the bottom of a slope.
Her chip popped into the air, took a hop and clanged into the cup for par.
“I was just trying to get it close so I could try to make bogey and the next thing I know it went in,” the 19-year-old Canadian said. “So it was a great save and definitely saved my day.
“I didn’t get much going after that, but hopefully looking back at the end of the week I’ll see that that really saved me and I’ll try to make birdies instead of having to save par that way.”
Click here to see more photos from the 2017 Lotte Championship.
