{"id":15808,"date":"2026-06-05T04:56:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T04:56:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/15808\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T04:56:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T04:56:08","slug":"four-australians-in-the-hunt-after-womens-us-open-first-round-in-la","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/15808\/","title":{"rendered":"Four Australians in the hunt after Women’s US Open first round in LA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Four of the six Australians golfers competing at the 81st Women’s US Open are within sight of the leader after the opening round in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

Karis Davidson and Minjee Lee shot two-under-par 69s on Thursday (Friday AEST) at Riviera Country Club to be in a six-way tie for eighth.<\/p>\n

Compatriots Hannah Green and Stephanie Kyriacou are a further stroke back, Grace Kim (72) is one over and Sarah Hammett (80) nine over.<\/p>\n

Lee’s bogey-free first round of the second women’s major of the year was highlighted by birdies on the first and ninth holes.<\/p>\n

The 156-player field are fighting for the $US12 million ($17 million) in prize money and American Jennifer Kupcho leads the way, her five-under 66 earning a one-stroke lead over South Korea’s Sei Young Kim.<\/p>\n

The 29-year-old Kupcho, who has four career LPGA Tour wins but just one since 2022, made seven birdies and two bogeys.<\/p>\n

ABC Sport Daily podcast<\/a><\/p>\n

ABC Sport Daily is your daily sports conversation. We dive into the biggest story of the day and get you up to speed with everything else that’s making headlines.<\/p>\n

“I just really, really like the golf course,” said Kupcho, who missed the cut in her three previous US Open starts.<\/p>\n

“It’s kind of a ball-striker’s paradise. Just hit it down the fairway, hit it on the green and make the putts.”<\/p>\n

The entire field managed just one eagle in the first round \u2014 Allisen Corpuz holed out with a six-iron from 86 yards on the 17th.<\/p>\n

Mexico’s Gaby Lopez and Japan’s Hinako Shibuno joined South Korea’s Hyunjo Yoo, Ina Yoon and Minji Kang in the group at 68.<\/p>\n

World number one Nelly Korda (73) made a rough start, struggling off the tee to finish two over.<\/p>\n

“It wasn’t a great day,” Korda said.<\/p>\n

“I hit it really good Monday through Wednesday, so I have honestly no idea where this came from. So I’m going to go to the range.”<\/p>\n

Aphrodite Deng, a 16-year-old amateur, was in contention for the lead before playing two late holes at three over and carding a 70.<\/p>\n

Deng was born in Canada to Chinese parents before growing up in New Jersey and eventually settling in Florida.<\/p>\n

A competitive child figure skater for several years before the COVID-19 pandemic, Deng took up golf only seven years ago, but won the US Girls’ Junior last year.<\/p>\n

AAP\/AP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Four of the six Australians golfers competing at the 81st Women’s US Open are within sight of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15809,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[6759,44,5636,5637,1486,5638,692,6760,1037],"class_list":["post-15808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-abc-sport","tag-golf","tag-hannah-green","tag-karis-davidson","tag-major","tag-minjee-lee","tag-sport","tag-stephanie-kyriacou","tag-us-open"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15808\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}