The No. 2 ranked player in the world, Jeeno Thitikul, is out in front of a leaderboard that features many LPGA Tour stars.
In the opening round of the third annual Mizuho Americas Open, played at Liberty National right next to Manhattan, Thitikul shot a bogey-free, -8 64 to take a two-stroke lead over Celine Boutier and Hye Jin Choi.
Thitikul, still looking for her first win on the LPGA Tour this year, had eight birdies without any bogeys. She had three on the front nine, and brought five coming back in, including on the final two holes.
As always, Thitikul scored with a balanced attack, hitting 11 fairways, 15 greens and needing only 26 putts. When her game is clicking, there isn’t anything even approaching a weakness.
Boutier struggled early but surged on her last 10 holes. Starting from 18, her ninth hole of the day, Boutier made birdies on seven of the last 10 to get to -6. She hit almost every fairway and got good distance off the tee compared to her normal averages.
Hye Jin Choi, like Thitikul, was efficient, making three birdies on the front and three birdies on the back. While her counting stats aren’t as impressive, with just nine fairways hit and 30 putts, she was dynamite out of the fairway, hitting 16 greens.
Last week’s winner and runner up Haeran Ryu and Esther Henseleit are both at -5 with a large group of other players including major champion Jennifer Kupcho.
Nelly Korda was in fine form playing next to Jeeno, particularly on the back nine, where she didn’t make any bogeys, but also made only two birdies. She shot -4 68 to stay relatively in contention after one day. She had just 28 putts for the round, which is a stat we will continue to monitor this week.
