Evian Championship: Last lady pro Major tournament of 2015

 Lexi Thompson shares lead with Lee on 66

NEWS RELEASE FROM LADIES EUROPEAN TOUR

By BETHAN CUTLER, LET Media Manager

Lexi Thompson, pictured above,  of the United States and Mi Hyang Lee of South Korea fired a matching pair of five under par 66s to share the lead on day one of the Evian Championship, the final Major of 2015.

Thompson made a spectacular start, picking up five shots in four holes from the 12^th, including an eagle on the par-5 13^th.

Lee, the winner of the 2014 New Zealand Women’s Open, joined her with seven birdies against two bogeys on the Evian Resort Golf Course in Haute Savoie, France.

The pair are one stroke clear of Eun-Hee Ji of South Korea, Thailand’s Pornanong Phatlum and Gerina Piller of the United States. 

A stroke further back on three under par 68 are last week’s Helsingborg Open champion Nicole Broch Larsen from Denmark, the recent ISPS HANDA Ladies European Masters winner Beth Allen from the USA, Australian Minjee Lee, China’s Shanshan Feng and South Korean Sei Young Kim.

Thompson finished second at the 2010 Evian Masters as a 15-year-old amateur and was third in 2013, so has good memories of the location.

The 2014 Kraft Nabisco Champion, due to make her second Solheim Cup appearance next week in Germany, commented: “I'm definitely pretty happy with my first round. I had a good stretch on my first nine on the back nine there and made a few birdies and an eagle, so helped out with the scorecard. But, yeah, overall very exciting ride.”

Broch Larsen, who is playing in the Evian Championship for the first time, began her second Major with a birdie on the second and she made the turn at three under after a rolling in a putt of 11 metres for eagle on the par-5 ninth. Although she made bogey on hole-10, she recovered by making a short one metre putt for birdie on the par-3 16^th.

“I played very well today, very solid, and when I missed the green I made some great up and downs,” said Broch Larsen. “Actually I missed a few short ones for birdies but minus three is a nice start. I hit a good drive, 5 wood to 11 metres and made that one.”

Allen, who is also making her Evian debut, started from the 10^th hole and bogeyed the 12^th before picking up birdies on 13, 16 and 17 on the back nine. She bogeyed the first, but made two more birdies on six and nine.

Sweden’s Caroline Hedwall is the top ranked European Solheim Cup team member after she shot a solid two under par 69 to sit in a share of 12^th place.

She said: “I struggled a little bit last week in Sweden on the greens, and I felt like I made a couple more putts today. It just feels good to see a couple roll in. Hopefully there can be some more in the coming days. But I'm happy with the red number today. I played really well from tee to green, but at least I made three-putts today. So I'm happy with that. I had a lot of good looks, but last week I didn't make a single putt, so today I made three, so that's going forward.”

Fellow Solheim Cup player Charley Hull fired an opening one under par 70 and she said: “I’m happy. I felt like I played well. I had nothing that went in today apart from my eagle putt on nine, so I was a bit frustrated because I could have birdied the last three holes and they all lipped out.”
 ALL THE FIRST-ROUND SCORES
 par 71

T1	Lexi Thompson	66	.
T1	Mi Hyang Lee	66
T3	Eun-Hee Ji	67
T3	Pornanong Phatlum	67
T3	Gerina Piller	67
T6	Minjee Lee	68
T6	Beth Allen	68
T6	Hans Reimers	68
T6	Shanshan Feng	68
T6	Sei-Young Kim	68
T6	Min Lee	68
T12	Jenny Shin	69
T12	Lydia Ko	69
T12	Caroline Hedwall	69
T12	Morgan Pressel	69
T12	Jin Young Ko	69
T17	Brittany Lincicome	70
T17	Pernilla Lindberg	70
T17	Jodi Ewart Shadoff	70
T17	Mariajo Uribe	70
T17	Brooke Henderson	70
T17	Alison Lee	70
T17	Charley Hull	70
T17	Jennifer Song	70
T17	Haru Nomura	70
T26	Jacqui Concolino	71
T26	Xiyu Lin	71
T26	Sandra Gal	71
T26	Ilhee Lee	71
T26	Mirim Lee	71
T26	Karine Icher	71
T26	I.K. Kim	71
T26	Candie Kung	71
T26	Mina Harigae	71
T26	Meena Lee	71
T26	Alison Walshe	71
T26	Brittany Lang	71
T26	Lee-Anne Pace	71
T26	Karrie Webb	71
T40	Amy Anderson	72
T40	Su-Hyun Oh	72
T40	Leona Maguire (am)	72
T40	Ryann O'Toole	72
T40	Rebecca Artis	72
T40	Jaye Marie Green	72
T40	Amy Yang	72
T40	Austin Ernst	72
T40	Inbee Park	72
T40	Catriona Matthew	72
T40	Anna Nordqvist	72
T40	Sadena Parks	72
T40	Julieta Granada	72
T40	Chella Choi	72
T40	So Yeon Ryu	72
T40	Gwladys Nocera	72
T56	Lizette Salas	73
T56	Laura Davies	73
T56	Stacy Lewis	73
T56	Ssu-Chia Cheng	73
T56	Kim Kaufman	73
T56	Emily Pedersen	73
T56	Marina Alex	73
T56	Ariya Jutanugarn	73
T56	Kelly Tan	73
T56	Mathilda Cappeliez	73
T56	Christina Kim	73
T56	Hyo-Joo Kim	73
T56	Mo Martin	73
T56	Carlota Ciganda	73
T70	Hannah Burke	74
T70	Ayako Uehara	74
T70	Paula Creamer	74
T70	Mika Miyazato	74
T70	Yani Tseng	74
T70	Q Baek	74
T70	Caroline Masson	74
T70	Beatriz Recari	74
T70	Wei-Ling Hsu	74
T70	Maria McBride	74
T80	Alena Sharp	75
T80	Belen Mozo	75
T80	Klara Spilkova	75
T80	Ai Miyazato	75
T80	Ha Na Jang	75
T80	Cristie Kerr	75
T80	Michelle Wie	75
T80	Katie Burnett	75
T80	Kelly Shon	75
T80	Joanna Klatten	75
T80	Jessica Korda	75
T80	Suzann Pettersen	75
T80	M.J. Hur	75
T80	Azahara Munoz	75
T80	Kris Tamulis	75
T80	Agathe Laisne	75
T80	Thidapa Suwannapura	75
T97	Danielle Kang	76	.
T97	Juli Inkster	76
T97	SooBin Kim	76
T97	Hannah O'Sullivan	76
T97	Sun Young Yoo	76
T102	Maria Hernandez	77
T102	Sydnee Michaels	77
T102	Moriya Jutanugarn	77
T102	Sarah Kemp	77
T102	Jane Park	77
T102	Melissa Reid	77
T108	Min Seo Kwak	78
T108	Celine Boutier (am)	78
T108	Angela Stanford	78
T108	Sarah Jane Smith	78
T108	Albane Valenzuela	78
T113	In Gee Chun	79
T113	Tiffany Joh	79
T113	Paula Reto	79
T113	P.K. Kongkraphan	79
T117	Sakura Yokomine	80
T117	Hee Young Park	80
119	Natalie Gulbis	81	.
120	Connie Chen	82
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