Six S. Koreans off to fast start at LPGA Taiwan Championship

By Brian Han

South Koreans once again dominated the leaderboard at the Fubon LPGA Taiwan Championship after the opening round.

No. 1 ranked player in the world, Park Inbee birdied the final five of seven holes to co-lead the field with China’s Shanshan Feng at 8-under.

Park is making a strong case for why she recently overtook America’s Stacy Lewis as the top-ranked player in the world.

“I hit the ball really solid all day and on the back nine, everything seemed to drop,” Park told an AP reporter. “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.

Ryu So-yeon came out firing on the front-nine with a 5-under 31 then took it even further on the back-nine going birdie-eagle-birdie to take the outright lead at 9-under.

Ryu had to settle for a 6-under 66 after finishing with a bogey on the par-3 17th and a double bogey on the par-5 18th putting her in tied-for-third.

“Honestly, 6 under is a good score, but I had a really bad finish,” Ryu told an AP reporter. “So, 6 under is not a good enough score to me.”

Other notables from South Korea include Ji Eun-hee and Kim In-kyung who both shot a 7-under 67 to tie for seventh as well as Lee Mi-hyang who shot 4-under 68 to tie for tenth.

No other country was nearly as well presented as South Korea in the top-10, but the United States were next in line with two players — Stacy Lewis in tied-for-seventh and Michelle Wie in tied-for-tenth.