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John Sudbrink / Special to the Daily Press
Everyone knew the rain was coming, and it did. But play was never interrupted, and the Kingsmill Championship’s first round ended with an unprecedented five-way tie for first place.
Jaye Marie Green, In Gee Chun, Jessica Korda, Azahara Munoz and Annie Park all shot 6-under-par 65 Thursday on a soggy River Course.
Nasa Hataoka and 2016 Kingsmill champion Ariya Jutanugarn are a shot back, and 10 players are tied at 4 under on a can-of-sardines leaderboard.
Chun, Korda and Munoz are all previous winners on the LPGA Tour. Green and Park have no championships and a combined six top-10 finishes.
“I don’t think I’ve ever led after a first round before,” said Green, who indeed hasn’t. “It’s good to be in good position. I mean, there is so much golf left, but I like my position.
“I think I only missed one green today (also true), so I had a lot of opportunities for birdie. And I made seven of them, so that’s good.”
It could have been even better. On her final hole, No. 9, she left a birdie putt “a revolution short” of dropping. Green was that close to having the outright lead.
Park, a former NCAA champion at Southern California, finished with her lowest round in nearly two years. She began climbing the leaderboard with a three-hole stretch of birdie-eagle-birdie on the back nine.
Park, who turned 23 last month, was in the third group off the tees at 7:37 a.m. She finished her round at 12:15, just as light rain began to fall.
“We’re very fortunate to play in rain-free weather,” Park said. “Hopefully, it stays like this the rest of the week.
“I was struggling reading putts in the mid-round but started to, you know, roll some putts in. So it was a good day.”
Especially that run on the back nine. It started on No. 14, a par-4, where she hit the pin with her second shot before making a short birdie putt.
On 15, the last par-5, Park nearly holed her second shot. But she gladly accepted an eagle after a 2-foot putt.
Park followed that with a birdie on 16, which gave her the lead at 6 under. From there, she parred 17 and made a crucial save on 18 to finish with her best round since a 64 in September 2016.
Korda, one of 11 players to win a tournament this year, also had a bogey-free round. She birdied three of her first five holes and was 5 under coming to No. 18.
Following a strong drive down the middle of the fairway, she hit a 54-degree wedge to within 4 feet of the cup. That led to an easy birdie putt and a tie for the lead.
“It’s a very challenging hole off the tee,” Korda said of 18. “Obviously, par is always the goal. Anything else is just a bonus.”
Since breaking her two-year title drought by winning her first tournament of 2018, the 25-year-old Korda has four top-10 finishes in six events. Nineteen of her 25 rounds have been under par.
Munoz’s morning round didn’t start well as she made bogey on her first hole (No. 10). But starting at 13, she birdied six of her next nine holes to go to 5 under.
On the par-4 No. 8 (her 17th), Munoz got what she called “a little bonus of a birdie.” She hit her second shot left but was able to chip it in from about 12 yards.
On 9, another par-4, she was again left (as well as short) on her second shot. But she chipped it to within 4 feet of the cup and made par.
“It felt awesome finishing with the par save on the last (hole),” Munoz said. “I hit lots of fairways, lots of greens, and played pretty solid.”
Chun, whose two career wins are both majors, said she felt “a little off” before her 1:27 p.m. tee time. Starting on the back nine, she was 1 under after 10 holes. But she must have felt better when she birdied Nos. 2, 3, 6, 7 and 8.
“I had a couple birdie chances during the first nine holes, but I couldn’t make some short putt chances,” Chun said. “I tried to forget it and focus on my game. I think it was a good score during the last nine holes.”
Friday’s second round is scheduled to tee off at 7:15 a.m. According to the Weather Channel, there is at least a 75 percent chance of thunderstorms all day.
Johnson can be reached at 757-247-4649. Follow him on Twitter at @DaveJohnsonDP.