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 yr, have been a part of the massive group at 69. Each are on the U.S. crew for the Solheim Cup in two weeks, and that is their last competitors.
Two captain’s picks for the People, Lexi Thompson and Sarah Schmelzel, together with Massachusetts native Megan Khang, have been at 70.
Listed here 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 almost twenty years, and it took some changes with the agency greens and run-off areas.
For Alex, it was a contented adjustment in contrast together 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 significantly brutal, and Alex was amongst these caught on the worst aspect of the draw. She shot 80 within the opening spherical, leaving her little probability of constructing the minimize.
“It was powerful for lots of us on a few of these waves,” Alex mentioned. “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 good.”
Alex mentioned she was blissful to “toss the 2 weeks in Scotland apart.”
“There was some good golf this yr,” she mentioned. “It’s been coming and going, however I’m blissful 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 certain. 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 both sides. One in every of 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 occasions on the again 9. The more durable process was taking part in in a twosome when Jenny Shin withdrew. that meant plenty of standing round.
“Our tempo was slightly off at the moment due to us being behind a threesome, so I felt prefer it was exhausting on the finish to get into an excellent rhythm,” Alex mentioned. “I felt like mentally that was probably the most difficult a part of ending up. Simply staying in it. Loads of waits between photographs. You get drained. It’s late.”
Coughlin additionally was at 4 below till a bogey on the par-5 18th gap, with the third shot over a creek and extreme slopes off among the edges of the inexperienced.
That wasn’t about to spoil her temper. She has gained twice this yr, the second clinching her spot on her first Solheim Cup crew. The matches towards Europe are Sept. 13-15 in Virginia, the place she went to school.
Not the entire People within the Solheim Cup acquired 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 area, none of whom have been at par or higher.
