Grace Kim grabs first-round LA Championship lead

 

[April 26, 2024]  Grace Kim, looking for her second LPGA victory in her fourth season, holds the lead after the first round of the JM Eagle LA Championship on Thursday in Los Angeles.

Grace Kim shot a 7-under-par 64 at Wilshire Country Club, leaving her one shot ahead of Sweden's Maja Stark, Thailand's Chanettee Wannasaen and South Korea's Sei Young Kim.

Auston Kim, South Korea's Haeran Ryu and Russia's Nataliya Guseva are tied for fifth at 5 under. Defending champion Hannah Green of Australia, Amy Yang of South Korea and Bianca Pagdanganan of the Philippines share eighth place at 4 under.

The tour's hottest player, Nelly Korda, is taking the week off after winning the Chevron Championship last week for her fifth victory in five starts.

Grace Kim produced a bogey-free round, capped by a birdie at the par-3 18th hole.

"I think if I was to compare my round today compared to last week, I really focused on just not having too much in my mind," she said. "I think I overthought a lot of things through my first and second round last week and struggled a little bit mentally.

"So just that self-belief, not forcing anything, and trusting that my muscle memory of a golf swing would work. Yeah, I guess that kind of worked out well."

Grace Kim, 23, earned her lone tour victory last summer at the Lotte Championship. Looking ahead to her chances of adding another win this week, she said, "Obviously I had a good day today, but it's a fresh day tomorrow and the weekend.

"So hopefully just another nice, easy round tomorrow. Not too hard on myself. Just accept mistakes if they do come and just take the birdies as they come."

Stark began her bogey-free round on the back nine and was 2 under through 10 holes before making four birdies the rest of the way. She is coming off a second-place finish behind Korda last week.

"(I am) much more confident in my game," Stark said. "I still like chickened out on a couple shots today which is just like me. I feel like I've been better at not chickening out as much.

"Then just knowing I can be patient and not have to chase birdies to actually make them, because I think when I'm chasing birdies, that's when I make my mistakes. Didn't feel like I did that today. I was just kind of bobbing along, and then the putts start falling in."

Wannasaen was 7 under for the round before finishing bogey-par-par on the back nine.

Sei Young Kim climbed into contention with four consecutive birdies on the back nine, and she ended her day without a bogey.

--Field Level Media

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