Mexico City: American Christina Kim, seeking her first LPGA title since 2005, fired a seven-under-par 65 to grab a one-stroke lead after Thursday’s first round of the Lorena Ochoa Invitational.
The 30-year-old US standout took a one-stroke lead over Spain’s Azahara Munoz, with New Zealand teen Lydia Ko, this season’s LPGA Rookie of the Year, alone in third on 68.
Kim’s bogey-free round included eagles at the par-five second and 17th holes in Mexico City, where she led after the first round for the first time since 2008. Kim has only two top-10 finishes this year but one was a runner-up effort at the ShopRite LPGA Classic.
“It seems like every Sunday I have been playing well, just shoot myself in the foot the first couple rounds,” Kim said.
“So before we started, T.J. [Jones, her caddie] said, ‘Let’s pretend it’s Sunday and go from there.’ It has been a lot of fun.”
Kim’s only two LPGA titles came at the 2004 Longs Drugs Challenge and 2005 Tournament of Champions. She won a Ladies European Tour event, the Sicilian Ladies Italian Open, in 2011.
A closing bogey cost Munoz a share of the lead.
