Who is popular today?

The sequence of being a first-round leader for a third straight week was broken, still – for Leona Maguire – an opening round of level-par 72 provided a solid start to the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Atlanta Athletic Club where American Lizette Salas used her power game to good effect in claiming the clubhouse lead with a five-under-par 67.
Maguire – on a hot streak of form, which has seen her finish tied-ninth in the Mediheal Championship and runner-up in the Meijer Classic in back-to-back weeks – knew going into the season’s third Major that the course, affected by heavy rain for much of the past week, would play long and put a premium on her use of hybrids, 9-wood and long irons.
The 26-year-old Co Cavan golfer indeed managed to find a way to get home in level par. An opening bogey on the first was one of three dropped shots (also bogeying the eighth and 13th holes) but she nullified those bogeys with birdies on the Par-5 fifth and 12th and then a fine birdie on the Par-3 17th.
Salas, a 31-year-old Californian, conjured up a remarkable bogey-free 67 with five birdies – on the fourth, fifth, 12th, 17th and 18th holes – to claim the lead. Although a tour player for the past decade, Salas’s only win came in the 2014 Kingsmill Championship. In the Majors, she has managed four career top-10s, including a runner-up finish in the 2019 Women’s British Open.
Of her improved form of late, Salas – a four-time Solheim Cup player – revealed she had struggled with her mental health through last year. Of managing to work her way through those dark days, she explained: “I started reading books because I had a hard time falling to sleep, and to put the phone away, really just slowed everything down and I was able decompress and let go of whatever was going on up in my brain. I was finally able to relax and play the golf I know how.”
Salas’s error-free round gave her a two-shot lead from the first wave over Alena Sharp, Xiyu Lin, Yealimi Noh and Dani Holmqvist.
Inbee Park, a three-time PGA champion and current world number two, recovered from an early triple-bogey to post a one-under round of 71, while in-form Nelly Korda, winner of last week’s Meijer Classic, signed for a two-under 70.
Korda, though, identified the slow pace of play as an issue. “There was four groups on one hole . . . once we hit the back nine, we just really slowed down.”
On the PGA European Tour, dangerous weather – with the threat of lightning – meant the opening round of the BMW International Open in Munich was unfinished with Australian Wade Ormsby the only one of four players to reach seven under to actually finish his round.
Ormsby signed for a 65 and shared the lead with England’s Sam Horsfield, who had completed 17 holes when the siren sounded, along with Japan’s Masahiro Kawamura (also through 17) and Spain’s Sebastian Garcia Rodriguez (12 holes).
The Australian had felt unwell in the days running up to the tournament but it didn’t show in his game.
“I have been swinging pretty good the last week and a half but the putter hasn’t been co-operating, but it did today, so that’s how you can shoot those numbers. I was definitely upside down yesterday. I got a few hours sleep last night, so I feel much better today but yesterday I thought I was going to be in trouble for the week but somehow it sorted itself out.”
Niall Kearney was another to be called in, with the Dubliner just one shot adrift after a haul of six birdies through 16 holes. Kearney’s birdies came at the 16th, 18th, second, fourth, fifth and sixth with his momentum halted by the weather gods.
Jonathan Caldwell, winner of the Made in Himmerland a fortnight ago, hit the ground running on his return to competition after a week off with an opening round 70 while Pádraig Harrington (72) and Paul Dunne (73) have some work to do if they are to survive the midway cut.
At the Travelers Championship on the PGA Tour, Kramer Hickok – seeking a breakthrough win on the circuit – opened with a seven-under-par 63 to claim the early clubhouse lead, a stroke clear of Talor Gooch.
“I got off to like the worst warm-up session of the year this morning and was just hitting it everywhere, and so I really changed my strategy. I was just trying to play a little bit more conservative, hit greens, and once the putts started to fall, I just knew it really freed me up,” explained Hickok of a round of eight birdies and a bogey.