Aug. 10, 2015
Rising senior Jennifer Hahn shot a first-round 68 and shares the lead after day one of the U.S. Women’s Amateur at the Portland Golf Club in Portland, Oregon. Sophomore Cindy Ha is one shot back of Hahn and Samantha Wagner in third place after carding a 69 in her first round Thursday.
Hahn, from Henderson, Nevada, had quite the finish to her round Thursday, birdieing four of her last nine and six of her final 13 holes.
“The first nine I got off to a pretty slow start,” Hahn told the USGA. “I birdied the first hole followed by three bogeys afterwards, so I was 2-over real quick. And then I started making some birdies around — I don’t even know, like 6 or 7 or something, I made two in a row, so I got it back to even after the turn. And then I just thought of it as a brand-new opportunity, a brand-new nine, so I just stuck to my game plan, hit some good shots, and hit it a lot better on the second nine. My approach shots were better and the putts were dropping.”
Ha carded seven birdies and four bogeys in her first round in route to her 69.
“There was a lot of birdies and bogeys, that’s for sure,” Ha told the USGA. “I think I only had two pars on the starting nine, and I finished 1-under on that nine. A lot of birdies and bogeys. I had it going for some holes and then I didn’t, and just went back and forth, but to finish with 3-under, I’m really happy with that. It was a tough 3-under, I’m not going to lie. It’s not like — I mean, it could have been lower because there were so many birdies out there and the birdies that I had with all the bogeys, but I’m very happy with it because I wasn’t really hitting the ball too well. Yeah, starting off, I wasn’t hitting the ball too well. I can’t believe I shot 3-under to be honest.”
Ha will tee off of number one at 1:45 p.m. Pacific time on Friday, with Hahn beginning her second round at 2 p.m. Pacific off of number one.
The top 64 players after two rounds of stroke play advances to match play on Wednesday.