Inbee Park and Shanshan Feng each fired rounds of 8-under, 64, to share the lead after the opening round of the Fubon LPGA Taiwan Championship. Park, who took over the top spot in the Rolex Rankings earlier this week, hit all 14 fairways, 15/18 greens and needed only 26 putts to complete her round with eight birdies. 



“I hit the ball really solid all day, and on the back nine, everything seemed to drop,” Park said. “I can’t remember the last time I putted like this.  It’s been a really good putting day, so I’m really happy about that.”

Feng also played a bogey-free round using six birdies and an eagle.

“I think I did pretty well today,” Feng said. “Overall, a bogey free round.  I mean, I started the round, kind of like a smooth start. And then made a birdie and then I made an eagle on the sixth hole, which really got it started.  Then after that, I was just making putts and my iron game was just as good as normal.”

The duo sits two clear of a group of four players - So YeonRyu, Line Vedel, Haru Nomura and Taiwanese amateur Ssu-Chia Cheng, who carded an impressive 66.“The score I shot today is much better than I expected,” Cheng admitted. “I think it’s mostly because I tried not to over-think too much, even though this tournament is the grandest stage of golf in Taiwan.”

Cheng used six birdies, including three on the last four holes, to post her bogey free round. Players were able to take advantage of ideal scoring conditions at the Miramar Golf Country Club as 44 players finished with rounds under par.

Among them is inaugural LPGA Taiwan Championship winner Yani Tseng, who closed strong with 4 birdies in her final 5 holes to finish with a 69, tied for 15th after Brittany Lincicome shot a 68 and then withdrew from the tournament due to illness.

“This golf course can play really easy when the wind is not blowing,” Tseng explained. “Today the course was playing shorter and many greens are reachable with short irons. I think I stood over the ball for too long today,” added Tseng.

Meanwhile, Ryu had one of those stretches of golf that everyone dreams of during her opening round. Ryu started her day with three-straight birdies and by the time she left the 12th hole she was 9-under par. But she came unglued in the last two holes, closing with disappointing bogie and double-bogie for a 66.“Honestly, 6-under is a good score but I had a really bad finish,” Ryu said.  “Now I’m going to work a bit more on my driver.”