Lauren Coughlin holds first-round lead at the Chevron Championship – Golf News

After capturing a gap 66 on the Chevron Championship in Texas on Thursday, American golfer Lauren Coughlin has a first-round lead for simply the second time in her profession.

Coughlin went bogey-free with three birdies on the entrance 9 and three on the again 9 on the primary day of the match.

She hit 14 of 18 greens, recorded 10 one-putts and wanted simply 26 putts total to get by way of her first spherical.

“I feel my husband and I had a extremely good recreation plan, and I wasn’t making an attempt to be too aggressive on the market. Simply making an attempt to take a 30-footer or, I might need a chip right here or there, simply figuring out that that’s the suitable place to be,” she stated.

Her husband, John Pond, just lately began caddying for her.

She added: “Not making an attempt to be too aggressive in sure spots and taking what, definitely there’s some holes, good pins and stuff that you would be able to go at stuff, however total, I used to be simply making an attempt to take what it could give me and never making an attempt to power something.”

Coughlin is making her eleventh look in an LPGA Tour main championship this week. The American has made the lower in simply two of her 10 earlier begins in majors, however completed T15 and T16, respectively, within the 2023 and 2022 KPMG Ladies’s PGA Championship.

Two strokes behind Coughlin are two-time LPGA Tour winner Marina Alex, eight-time JLPGA winner Minami Katsu and main champion Nelly Korda, who’s chasing her fifth win in as many consecutive begins on Tour.

Defending champion Lilia Vu withdrew from the Chevron Championship moments earlier than her first-round tee-off on Thursday because of a again damage.