Lewis, No. 1 Ko lurk after 1st 18

Former Arkansas All-American Stacy Lewis shot a first-round 67 and is tied for 23rd, five shots off the lead and one shot behind world No. 1 Lydia Ko.
Former Arkansas All-American Stacy Lewis shot a first-round 67 and is tied for 23rd, five shots off the lead and one shot behind world No. 1 Lydia Ko.

ROGERS -- Stacy Lewis walked off the back of the eighth green, her 17th hole Friday at Pinnacle Country Club, and took note of the large video scoreboard directly behind her during the first round of the Wal-Mart LPGA NW Arkansas championship.

photo

Stacy Lewis lines up her putt on the 16th green Friday during the LPGA Wal-Mart NW Arkansas Championship at Pinnacle Country Club in Rogers.

Lewis, a former Arkansas All-American, saw a plethora of low numbers, topped by Ayako Uehara's 9-under-par 62, which was the low round of the day and tied the tournament record.

At 4 under 67, Lewis is tied for 23rd after a solid if not spectacular start.

"The putting wasn't quite there," said Lewis, who missed a makeable birdie on No. 8 and an 8-footer for birdie on No. 9. "... I was more pleased with the way I hit the ball. I felt like my old self out there today and it was really nice."

Lewis has reason to remain optimistic. She carded a 1-under 70 in the first round in 2014 but wound up winning at 12 under. She'll almost certainly need to go low today and Sunday to have a shot to be in contention.

"I don't feel like I hurt myself too much," Lewis said. "People are going to shoot low scores. You get it on this golf course, but you usually don't see it for three days straight. So it's important to have a good start, which I did.

" You've got to get into double digits under par it looks like to be around the lead come Sunday. But with this golf course, anybody can shoot 62 at any time. It's out there. You've just got to keep giving yourself those birdie chances."

Her playing partners were just ahead of her.

World No. 1 Lydia Ko's roller coaster eagle-bogey-birdie finish capped a 5-under 66 that had her four shots off the lead. Ko sank a 35-footer for eagle on No. 7, her 16th hole of the day. She bogeyed the eighth, but hit her approach on No. 9 to 5 feet to set up a sliding birdie putt.

"I'm happy with the way I played," Ko said.

Minjee Lee, at No. 13 the lowest-ranked player in the group, had the best round of the threesome, overcoming a bogey-double bogey stretch on her front nine by making eight of her nine birdies on her final 13 holes en route to a 6-under 65.

For Lewis, whose last victory was in Rogers two years ago and has slipped from No. 1 to No. 10 in the world , the round represented much of the issues she's dealt with this year.

She hit 11 of 13 fairways and 16 of 18 greens in regulation, no surprise for a player who ranks in the top five on the LPGA Tour in both categories. But she needed 31 putts, slightly worse than her 30.16 average, which ranks 86th on the tour.

She made five birdies, but also left a lot of birdies on the greens, which led to groans from the day's largest gallery, one ready to cheer on the hometown favorite and world No. 1.

"It was pretty subdued out there," Lewis said. "I guess it was pretty early in the morning."

They'll try to give their fans more to cheer about today when they tee off at 1:47 p.m. from No. 1, hoping to make a move into contention.

"We know we're all going to have fun no matter what," Ko said.

Sports on 06/25/2016

Upcoming Events