Dottie Ardina: Four birdies, onebogey. —INQUIRER GOLF PHOTO
PORTLAND—Filipino Olympian Dottie Ardina gunned down four birdies for a three-under-par 69 on Thursday (Friday in Manila) to be five strokes off the pace being set by Adela Cernousek, with two-time champion Brooke Henderson just a shot off at Columbia Edgewater Country Club.
The second Philippine entry, Bianca Pagdanganan, signed for a double bogey on the 18th and settled for a 70.
Ardina has had four prior starts in the LPGA this season and will try to make the cut for the first time, her start against one of the strongest fields on tour certainly giving her a boost to do just that as she enters the second round tied for 30th spot.
Henderson, meanwhile, has drawn a lot of attention. She won the first of her 13 LPGA Tour titles here in 2015 by eight strokes at age 17, and successfully defended the following year. Now 27, she’s winless since January 2023 and has dipped to 52nd in the world.
“I love coming back to this place,” Henderson said. “I do have a lot of the great memories. A lot of good things happened to me here.”
She opened her morning round with four straight birdies, two on par-5s. On her second nine, she birdied the par-5 fifth and seventh and the par-4 ninth.
“It’s really important to hit a bunch of fairways this week,” Henderson said. “You want to be hitting it really straight. I think I only missed two fairways today, so that was good. Hopefully, hit them all tomorrow.”
Cernousek shot a 65 in the final group of the day off the 10th tee. The 22-year-old Frenchwoman played her final nine holes in 7-under 29—highlighted by an eagle on No. 7. —With reports from AP
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