Two Tied at the Top After 18-Holes of the 2023 Texas Women’s Open, Green Leading Newly Formed Legends of the LPGA Division
GUNTER, TX – Ellie Szeryk (a) and Grace Jin (a) are tied for the lead after the first round of the 2023 Texas Women’s Open at The Bridges Golf Club. Both players fired opening rounds of 4-under-par, 68 to hold a one stroke lead over another duo at 3-under-par.
Szeryk (a) just completed her first year at Southern Methodist University after transferring from Texas A&M University. “I’ve absolutely loved it. This year has changed my life quite a bit,” she said. Her first round featured a hole-out for eagle on the par-5, 18th hole where she hit a 7-iron from 156 yards. “I didn’t even see it. I had turned around and all of sudden everyone was screaming.”
As for the rest of the round Szeryk said it was “Nothing crazy crazy special, I just stuck with my game plan all day. I’m happy to be here and play well.”
Tied also at 4-under-par is Grace Jin (a) from Huntsville, Texas and is committed to Sam Houston State University. She fired a bogey-free, 35-33–68 today.
“Today honestly my putting was just really good. I was keeping to my routine and staying calm.
My dad being next to me and caddying helped me a lot,” said Jin. She credited a lot of her good round to her putting. “I just had the confidence that, oh I’m going to make this,” said Jin about her putting today.
Leading the newly formed Legends of LPGA Division is Tammie Green of Daytona Beach, Florida. She also fired an opening round of 34-34-68, 4-under-par. Tammie started her professional career on the Futures Tour, and then onto the LPGA Tour. In 1987 she earned LPGA Tour Rookie of the Year honors and in 1989 was awarded the most improved player. Green eventually went on to win 7 LPGA Tour events.
“I got off to a great start today with a birdie on the first hole, then had a couple more birdies coming in on 6 and 8. Overall it was a great day,” said Green. Speaking about the newly formed division Green said, “we don’t really have the opportunity to play a lot of tournaments. We have the LPGA Championship and the U.S. Senior Women’s Open, but other than that we have state opens. I really see the growth of our legends players at state opens.”
The 17th hole yielded a hole-in-one today to 2010 Texas Women’s Open Champion and LPGA Legends member, Cindy Figg-Currier. She knocked it in with a 9-iron from 120 yards.
Three other professionals in the Legends of the LPGA Division trail Green by one shot. Those three and 18 others in the division are competing for a separate purse of $75,000 thanks to an enhanced partnership with Ewing Automotive Group.
The Bridges Golf Club
Par 36-36–72
Championship Yardage: 6,421 yards
