A bit of a birdie fest
January 3, 2025
The women playing Lancaster Country Club in last spring’s U.S. Women’s Open faced a difficult but fair challenge in playing a long, hilly course.
Many of them made the short trip the next week to the much shorter, much flatter Seaview Resort Bay Course in Galloway Township, NJ for the ShopRite LPGA Classic presented by Acer.
During the June 7 first round it appeared the players’ cautionary approach of the week before had disappeared completely, with birdie opportunities nearly everywhere they looked.
Anyone playing par golf finished well below the probable cut line for the next day – or so it seemed.
I watched this distinct change in tactics firsthand when I walked with the first group to play in the first round.
Jennifer Song, a former Southern Cal star and veteran LPGA player, teamed up with another veteran, Korean golfer Jeongeun Lee5 (so named because six Korean golfers share the same name). They played that first round with Australian Robyn Choi, 26, just returned to the LPGA in 2024 after a stint on the Epson Tour.
On the first hole, there was a single par and two birdies. Song made a 15-footer from below the hole and Choi’s putt came from only 7 feet away.
Lee5 joined her group in the birdie collection on the next hole, normally a par 4 challenge at 421 yards. She made an impressively long putt through fringe and at least 18 feet of green.
Choi was next on the third hole, with a simple putt from 5 feet on the short par 5.
Song and Choi gave back two birdies with bogies on the fourth hole. Lee5 kept the total going on the 5th hole after landing her 95-yard approach to 2 feet.
Song and Lee5 went low again on the par 4 sixth hole. Song made her 3 from 15 feet while Lee5 sunk a 5-footer.
The group stalled a bit on the long par 3 7th hole, with Lee5’s bogey and the other two making pars. On the par 4 8th, however, they returned to birdie world. Choi made hers from about 12 feet and Lee5’s 8-footer rolled in nicely.
The par 5 9th is usually an easy birdie hole for the field. However, Lee5 was the only golfer in this group to keep the momentum going with her two-putt birdie from about 18 feet.
All three golfers parred the tenth and eleventh holes, which was probably a shock to their systems. On the par 4 12th, however, the birdie total rose again, despite Song’s bogey.
Lee5’s approach landed 6 feet below the hole and spun back to 12 feet. Undaunted, she made the birdie look easy.
Choi, on the other hand, surprised herself and her playing partners. Here’s how she described it: “I kind of got it too well and took a little bit of the wind and landed pin high and bounced over back to the fringe. I decided to go with a low 58[-degree wedge] and surprisingly it went in. Kind of got me into a momentum.”
Song helped her cut-making chances with another birdie on the uphill par-4 13th. A long drive led to a shorter approach to 8 feet, hole high.
A group of golf fans meet each year at the 17th green at the ShopRite LPGA Classic with a batch of pre-marked tee shirts they use to celebrate the golfers as they play the short par-3. They greeted LPGA veteran Jeongeun Lee5 with their version of her name, causing her to giggle and nearly lose her composure.
Things calmed down a bit, with none making pars on the next three holes. However, the happy times returned on the par 3 17th when Song and Choi made birdies.
Lee5 had a group of fans chanting her name from the viewing stand behind the green, while wearing t-shirts that spelled out LEE FIVE. She giggled, waved, and smiled her way to the 18th hole.
The group finished with a three-birdie flourish on the 501-yard par 5.
Song blasted out of the left green-side bunker to 3 feet. Her birdie brought her to -1 for the day, where she stood after the first hole.
Lee5 made it to 6-under with a two-putt finish from 45 feet.
Choi’s 3-wood second shot left her a few feet short of the green, where she two-putted for her 4. That brought her to 5-under.
Lee5’s caddie, Bob Kendall, agreed that with a little luck, his player’s round could have been even lower. “There were a couple of putts that caught the edge. She drove it well today which always helps,” he said.
Song’s finish improved her mood. “I was struggling a little bit but got my game back,” she said.
In post-round comments Choi said, “I think a lot of things were going well today. I was hitting a lot of shots close, which gave me a lot of birdie opportunities. I didn’t take all the opportunities, but I took most of them. I think playing well in the first round is important since they know after they make the cut, you only have one day to kind of climb up the leaderboard. To come back and shoot 5-under today is exciting.”
This trio’s first round success was mirrored by many others on a warm sunny day with little wind until the later part of the afternoon.
After the challenges of the Women’s Open, it must have felt like a pressure valve blowing off.