The LPGA hosts its third main championship of the season this week at Sahalee Country Club in Sammamish, Washington. After the primary day of play, there’s a heavy Solheim Cup presence on the primary web page of the leaderboard.
Team USA veteran Lexi Thompson leads the sector by one stroke. However, there are 15 Solheim Cup members throughout the Top 70, seven of that are inside 4 pictures of her.
Members of each the 2023 European and American crews are virtually equally represented— eight from Team USA and 7 from Team Europe.
The 4 Americans at even par or higher are Thompson, Nelly Korda, Allisen Corpuz, and Ally Ewing.
Korda set the tone Thursday morning with a formidable 3-under 69, a night-and-day distinction from her efficiency at this yr’s U.S. Women’s Open, the place she began with an 80.
Meanwhile, Corpuz signed for a 2-under 70 to sit down in a tie for fourth with 10 different ladies. Ewing carded an even-par 72.
Thompson fought onerous to take the lead along with her 4-under 68. Her spherical featured six birdies and two bogeys. She began her day with three straight par-breakers and added her fourth on the ninth to exit in 32 strokes. However, she would come dwelling with an even-par 36 after a bogey on 10 and 16 canceled her birdies at 12 and 14.
But Thompson did make clutch par saves on the seventeenth and 18th holes, which maintained her one-shot benefit. She wants each save she will get as she is combating for a qualifying spot for the Solheim Cup in September. Thompson at present sits fifteenth within the rankings, with 500 factors. However, a win this week would earn her 450 factors and provides her a complete of 950, which might leapfrog her to eighth.
Leona Maguire, Charley Hull, Celine Boutier, and Maja Stark signify Team Europe members inside 4 pictures of Thompson. Hull, Maguire, and Boutier all signed for 2-under 70s. Stark completed Thursday at even par.
With the Solheim Cup simply 81 days away, each groups hope to subject the perfect rosters for the biennial competitors at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Gainesville, Virginia.
Team Europe has won three straight Solheim Cups, however the Americans will look to reclaim that title on dwelling soil.
Savannah Leigh Richardson is a golf employees author for SB Nation’s Playing Through. For extra golf protection, observe us @_PlayingThrough on all main social platforms. You also can observe her on Twitter @SportsGirlSL and Instagram @savannah_leigh_sports.
