South Korean Misun Cho grabs an early lead at Capital Hills
South Korean Misun Cho fired a 64 in the opening round of the Credit Union Challenge to grab an early lead.
The first round of the Symetra Tour tournament, being staged at Capital Hills, Albany, ended with a flurry of excitement, as players who were not regarded as favourite, consolidated their positions on the leaderboard.
Cho kicked off her round in impressive style as posted a birdie on the very first hole. Her game looked perfect enough that she did not once mess up, and kept ramping up pressure on rivals by shooting birdies.
The South Korean star parred the second and third hole, and then drained another birdie on the fourth, receiving applause from the spectators. Since Cho did not make any bogey, her score swelled to 64 — something
even players like Sydnee Michaels struggled to achieve throughout the day.
Cheongju native stunned her rivals and spectators when she shot three straight birdies on the seventh, eighth and ninth hole, making another huge dent in the scores of her nearest rivals.
Olivia Jordan-Higgins of England was also happy to see her name on the second position on the leaderboard. Jordan-Higgins displayed a tremendous performance and made near-perfect strokes on almost all the holes.
Her score for the opening round was a 65.
The English star went into a nerve-jangling battle against Cho in a bid to snatch an early lead, however, the South Korean outperformed her by posting one more birdie. Cho drained seven birdies while Jordan-Higgins
carded six birdies and no bogey.
On the back nine, the South Korean prodigy kept the pressure intact on her nearest rivals, as she avoided making lousy putts to make sure she remained in contention. The spectators heaped praise on her when
she rattled off two back-to-back birdies on the 12th and the difficult 13th hole.
Cara Freeman of the United States carded a 66 to stand at the third position on the leaderboard. Freeman found it a bit difficult to move ahead in the face of tough resistance by the first-round leader and
Jordan-Higgins.
On the other hand, American Calle Nielson shot a 67 in the round to tie for the fourth spot along with four other contenders.
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