Jodi Ewart Shadoff birdied her final four holes to grab a share of the first-round lead at the LPGA FM Championship at TPC Boston on Thursday.
The Englishwoman signed for a seven-under-par 65 to join South Korea’s Kim Sei-young and American Allisen Corpuz at the top of the leaderboard, one shot clear of China’s Miranda Wang.
Ewart Shadoff, who started on the 10th, was four under through 12 holes before a bogey at the 4th. She bounced back in style, reeling off birdies at the 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th.
“It was very steady,” she said. “I was striking the ball really well and finally got some putts to drop, a lot from outside 20 feet. For the first time in the last year and a half I kind of feel like I can do it again, so it’s exciting for me.”
Corpuz also started on the 10th and went out in four-under 32. She picked up back-to-back birdies at the 4th and 5th, dropped a shot on 6, and closed strongly with two more birdies in her last three holes.
“The putter was rolling really well today,” Corpuz said. “I had a lot of good looks and converted a lot of them.”
Kim, chasing a 13th LPGA Tour title and first since 2020, made seven birdies in a bogey-free round. After early birdies at the 2nd and 4th, she picked up further gains at seven, 12, 13, 15 and 16.
Wang produced the round of the day on the back nine, storming home in 29. After turning in one over, she went seven under on her second nine, including eight birdies and just one bogey.
“I had a par-free back nine,” Wang said. “Usually I think about a bogey-free round, but today it was a par-free half, so it was an amazing experience.”
A group of eight players were tied for fifth on 67, headlined by world No 2 Nelly Korda, No 4 Minjee Lee, France’s Celine Boutier and Denmark’s Emily Kristine Pedersen.
South Africans Ashleigh Buhai and Paula Reto carded 72 and 75 respectively.
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Photo: Vaughn Ridley/Getty Images
Article Link: Ewart Shadoff shares LPGA FM Championship lead