NORTON, Mass. — Marina Alex discovered the TPC Boston way more to her liking by taking part in bogey-free for a 4-under 68, giving her a one-shot lead Thursday within the inaugural FM Championship.
Former U.S. Ladies’s Open champion Allisen Corpuz and Lauren Coughlin, a two-time winner on the LPGA this 12 months, had been a part of the massive group at 69. Each are on the U.S. staff for the Solheim Cup in two weeks, and that is their ultimate competitors.
Two captain’s picks for the Individuals, Lexi Thompson and Sarah Schmelzel, together with Massachusetts native Megan Khang, had been at 70.
Listed below are the bios and data for the 12 U.S. gamers within the 2024 Solheim Cup matches.
The TPC Boston hosted a PGA Tour occasion for practically 20 years, and it took some changes with the agency greens and run-off areas.
For Alex, it was a contented adjustment in contrast along with her final two weeks in Scotland. She performed the Ladies’s Scottish Open at Dundonald Hyperlinks after which the AIG Ladies’s Open at St. Andrews and had to deal with a chilly wind at each stops.
St. Andrews was notably brutal, and Alex was amongst these caught on the worst facet of the draw. She shot 80 within the opening spherical, leaving her little probability of creating the minimize.
“It was robust for lots of us on a few of these waves,” Alex stated. “I simply felt like I wasn’t going to play an excellent spherical of golf once more, if I’m being trustworthy. It was actually good to see some good golf at the moment. It was a break to not play in 30 mph winds. Simply to have the ability to see your self hit a shot and go the place you’re intending is sweet.”
Alex stated she was comfortable to “toss the 2 weeks in Scotland apart.”
“There was some good golf this 12 months,” she stated. “It’s been coming and going, however I’m comfortable to see a 68 at the moment. I’m hoping that I can saved current for the subsequent three rounds.”
It was a tidy 68, for positive. She made birdies on two of the par 5s, No. 7 on the entrance and No. 12 on the again, and picked up birdies on a par-3 on all sides. One in all them was the eleventh to an elevated the inexperienced, the opposite to the water-framed sixteenth.
Alex needed to scramble for a par just a few instances on the again 9. The more durable job was taking part in in a twosome when Jenny Shin withdrew. that meant a variety of standing round.
“Our tempo was slightly off at the moment due to us being behind a threesome, so I felt prefer it was arduous on the finish to get into an excellent rhythm,” Alex stated. “I felt like mentally that was essentially the most difficult a part of ending up. Simply staying in it. A number of waits between photographs. You get drained. It’s late.”
Coughlin additionally was at 4 beneath till a bogey on the par-5 18th gap, with the third shot over a creek and extreme slopes off a few of the edges of the inexperienced.
That wasn’t about to spoil her temper. She has received twice this 12 months, the second clinching her spot on her first Solheim Cup staff. The matches towards Europe are Sept. 13-15 in Virginia, the place she went to school.
Not the entire Individuals within the Solheim Cup received off to nice begins. Rose Zhang had just one birdie and Jennifer Kupcho had two bogeys on par 5s. Each shot 75.
Europe has 5 gamers within the discipline, none of whom had been at par or higher.
