PORTLAND (Ore.) — Esther Henseleit has felt like she has been spinning her wheel for the past six months on LPGA Tour. Fridays AmazingCre Portland Classic felt like she was flying.
Henseleit made 10 birdie putsts on her way up to an 8-under 64, giving her a share of Lilia Vus lead going into the weekend.
Columbia Edgewater is tight, tree-lined and has firm greens that roll true. Henseleit kept it in play and let her putter take care of the rest.
Henseleit stated that he had made some good putts and hit a line. So today went well, he said. I had many chances but they werent gimmes. I didnt have any tap-in birdies.
Vu was a former No. Vu was a former No.1 amateur player while at UCLA. She had four birdies, an eagle and three pars on her opening seven holes. Then she played steadily on the back nine for another 66.
Vu and Henseleit were at 10-under-134.
They were one shot ahead Carlota Ciganda of Spain, who had an 66. The 8-under 136 large group included another former No. Andrea Lee, an amateur, was also in the large group at 8-under 136. Maja Stark of Sweden was the hot player on the other side.
Stark, who was a student at Oklahoma State, won four times on Ladies European Tour, including the ISPS Handa World Invitational, Northern Ireland, which was cosponsored by the LPGA Tour.
She is currently at No. 47 in the womens global ranking, and at No. 54 in Race to CME Globe, attempting to secure one of the 60 spots at the Florida finale in November.
Lee started her season with the Epson Tour development and then began to break out from a slump with a good finish at Hawaii.
She reached the semifinals of Bank of Hope LPGA Match Play Las Vegas, and was tied for 15th at the U.S Womens Open. Inbee Park was her alternate. Now she is ready to challenge the top 60 for the CME Group Tour Championship.
Nelly Korda is looking for a win to be relegated to No. The worlds No. 1 golfer, Nelly Korda, couldnt get going and dropped shots on the final two holes to finish at 73. This left her six shots behind.
Henseleit opened in March in Thailand with a score of 63 and ended up tied for 12th. This was her highlight of the year. She began to miss cuts and spend too many time on Friday, wondering if it would be possible to go home early.
Ive had some really rough bumps in my life since Thailand, and its great seeing the good things ahead. Henseleit said, I will just try to enjoy it and make it the best of it and just allow myself chances.
She said that it felt like nothing was coming together. I worked really hard and felt like each part of my game had been improving, but couldn’t really get the scores together. Its just good that today happened naturally and I didn’t have to work too hard for it.
She now faces a traffic jam for the next 36 holes. There were 18 players who were separated by four shots. Many players tried to win their first round.