LPGA’s Thompson 2 over after 1st round in Vegas PGA event

LOS ANGELES – Women’s golf star Lexi Thompson carded a two-over 73 after completing her first round in her PGA Tour debut at the Shriners Children’s Open.

“Just a huge honour to be able to tee it up here. I played decent. I had one bad hole and a few iffy shots. But it’s golf. It was kind of expected,” said Thompson, who played on a sponsor’s exemption, after recording a one-over through 16 holes before play was halted due to darkness on Thursday.

On Friday, she returned to finish her round, carding a bogey on the 17th hole and a par on the 18th for a 73.

The American became only the seventh woman to compete in a PGA Tour event and the first since compatriot Brittany Lincicome at the 2018 Barbasol Championship.

Her presence stole the show at the par-71 TPC Summerlin in Las Vegas, where players are fighting to earn their cards for the 2024 season.

Beau Hossler, still searching for his first tour win in his 174th start, holds a one-stroke lead on Thursday.

American Hossler birdied five of the last seven holes for a 62, ahead of countrymen Cameron Champ and J.T. Poston with 12 players yet to finish the round. Lanto Griffin and Davis Thompson were tied for fourth at 64.

“It was good. I felt like I did everything well. I imagine statistically I was probably gaining strokes in every department, which is obviously a good thing for my confidence moving forward,” Hossler, 28, said.

“Got the ball in play, hit some really nice wedges to close range, which was nice, and took advantage of the par-fives and the drivable hole, which I think out here is kind of the key.”

The top 65 and ties make the cut after the second round on Friday. If Thompson, who is two shots below the cut line at the start of the second round, makes the grade to the weekend, it would be the first time a woman did so on the PGA Tour since Babe Didrikson Zaharias accomplished the feat in 1945.

Shirley Spork also played all four rounds in the 1952 Northern California-Reno Open, an event which had no cut. The other women – Americans Michelle Wie West, Suzy Whaley, Lincicome and Sweden’s Annika Sorenstam all missed the cut.

Thompson felt the weight of history as her round began, comparing it to the tension of the Solheim Cup team matches, including September’s event where she was in the United States squad that drew 14-14 with Europe but could not reclaim the trophy.

“I had a little bit of nerves, but not too much. Similar to Solheim, similar nerves, but that’s kind of what you play for,” she said. Her first round included three birdies, three bogeys and a double bogey.

Thompson, who won her only Major title at the 2014 Kraft Nabisco Championship, last took an LPGA title at the 2019 ShopRite Classic. Her most recent title came in a Ladies European Tour event at New York in October 2022. AFP, REUTERS