Buhai and Liu share first round lead at JM Eagle LA Championship
By Amy Rogers
LOS ANGELES - Demanding, tricky, and funky were the words that players used to describe the LPGA Tour’s return to El Caballero Country Club for the first time in more than a decade. On day one of the JM Eagle LA Championship presented by Plastpro, as players continued to learn the venue, those who were able to best navigate their way around the sloping fairways, false fronts, and undulating greens, were rewarded with a spot atop the leaderboard.
Ashleigh Buhai and Yan Liu delivered the creativity the course demands on a chilly and overcast day outside Los Angeles to share the opening round lead at the JM Eagle LA Championship.
Buhai began her round on the back nine and carded an opening birdie at the par four, 10th hole to set the tone for the rest of her day. On Buhai’s final hole of the day, the par three, ninth hole, Buhai stood over a final birdie opportunity with a chance to climb to 10-under par for the round, but the ball circled in and out of the cup to leave Buhai with the consolation prize of a bogey-free round of 63.
“It's kind of crazy you're disappointed to lip-out for 10-under, but obviously it was a great day,” Buhai said about her round. “You got to be a little creative, which I think plays into my hands. You can't just get up and hit it. I think that's why I like the course, too.”
Thursday’s low round was one that Buhai had been patiently waiting for. She recorded two top-10s through her first four starts of the season and says she was looking forward to playing a course this season that would allow her to fully capitalize on her game. Buhai found a match in El Cab on Thursday.
“My caddie said to me, ‘the minute we got on a course where you can hold the greens a little bit we are going to do well,’” Buhai said about her play in recent weeks. “I've been trying to stick to the same thing I've been doing for the last couple months. It's been very consistent season so far. Finally today it all came together.”
Like Buhai, Liu began her day on the back nine where an opening bogey exposed her first tee jitters. And despite an unwieldy driver that saw her find just six fairways on Thursday, Liu had a slew of highlights in which she holed out for eagle at the par five, 16th hole and added eight more birdies, including three in a row over her closing stretch, for a round of 63.
“I had high expectations for myself and I was nervous on the first hole,” Liu said about the start to her day. “I got bogey and next hole I tell myself, you have to be calm and you have to be confident and be brave. You can do it.”
In the second to last group of the day, Frida Kinhult closed out her round with three consecutive birdies for a bogey-free round of 64 to sit solo second at eight-under par. Kinhult rode a hot putter to just 24 putts on Thursday, and managed to successfully navigate the difficult green complexes, which she described as “pretty funky.” She says her ability to play her approaches to the correct quadrant of the greens, using the slopes, and taking advantage of the gettable pin placements was the key to her low round on day one.
“Golf felt easy for once. Hopefully we’ll enjoy that ride the next few days as well,” Kinhult said after her round. “The putter definitely worked today. Maybe I need to sleep with it tonight to make sure it works the next few days.”
Madelene Sagstrom recorded the first hole-in-one of the 2025 LPGA Tour season at the par three, ninth hole on Thursday. Sagstrom had 120 yards to the hole and hit what she describes as a low, wind shot with her pitching wedge that resulted in her first ace in tournament competition. Sagstrom opened with a bogey-free round of seven-under par, 65.
“It really demands the shots,” Sagstrom said about the course on Thursday. “I wasn't crazy accurate off the tee today, but I hit some really good iron shots. I am still rolling my putter really well from the momentum from the last few weeks, so that helped me a lot.”
Sagstrom sits two-back of the lead along with In Gee Chun, who also went out in the morning, Miranda Wang, Jeongeun Lee6, and Jenny Shin who made a run up the leaderboard in the afternoon to join the pack at seven-under par.
Nelly Korda carded a round of 67 to sit four-strokes off the lead on Thursday. The World No. 1 says she felt more like herself on the golf course than she has in recent starts and was relieved to see the recent work she’s put in on her iron play pay off on day one at El Cab.
“I don't love grinding on the range. Like I don't like being a robot out there. I kind of got into that trying to make a few swing changes to get out of that and just into more of a playing mode, it took a little bit more time than I thought it would,” Korda said about finding some form on Thursday. “I'm happy to see kind of the positive changes make their way into tournament golf.”
