The Sportspedia
This year’s USGA-hosted U.S. Women’s Open, an LPGA Major, has the unusual feature that two golf courses are hosting the tournament at the same time for the two first rounds of stroke-play.
This is to make sure that all players have enough time to complete their rounds considering the shorter December days. Regardless of the unusual situation, both courses in Houston had a similar spread of scores throughout the day, so it should have not been a major factor.
The highlight was that we saw not one but two holes-in-one. The first one was by Amy Olson (USA) on the 16th of Cypress Creek, and the other one was aced by Yu Jin Sung (KOR), on the 4th of the same course. Their positions were very different, though: Amy led the day while Yu Jin was T108, a bit far from the cut.
Some players had unusually bad scores. Texan Angela Stanford (USA, T149) who won last weekend’s Volunteers of America Classic, had a +9 Round at Cypress Creek while Erika Hara (JAP, T154), who won this year’s Japan Women’s Open Golf Championship and the Japan LPGA Tour Championship Ricoh Cup scored +12 at Jackrabbit
However, another player from the Japan LPGA did have a great day. Yuka Saso (FIL), winner of two LPGA Japan tournaments this year, topped the leaderboard with a -4 for a good part of the day at Cypress Creek, and finished T5 with -2, behind the players Tied for second with -3: Hinako Shibuno (JAP), Moriya Jutanugarn (THA) and A Lim Kim (KOR).
This tournament has an important amateur contingent and some of them had a great day, notably Linn Grant (SWE; T5, -2), Amelia Garvey (AUS, T12, -1), Pauline Roussin-Bouchard (FRA, T12, -1) and Maja Stark (SWE, T12, -1).
