Piller, Aledo grad create buzz in first round of LPGA Shootout

Around noon Thursday, amateur Cheyenne Knight of Aledo was one of two players with the Stars and Stripes next to her name on the leader board of the Volunteers of America Texas Shootout.

And after a bogey-par finish to complete her first round at Las Colinas Country Club, the buzz wasn’t so much that the Alabama freshman had shot 70 and slipped to a tie for 18th, but that Knight was in contention after the first round.

“When I was on 18, I kind of looked over there and saw that my name was on the leader board and that was pretty cool,” Knight said. “I was kind of taking this as a learning experience and not putting a lot of pressure on myself.

“Of course, my goal is to make the cut, but I put a good number up there today, and now it’s just about enjoying the process of things. I didn’t hit it great today, but stayed in it, had fun and had a great attitude.”

By the end of the day, Knight was one of very few American or Texan hopes for the weekend.

The first six on the leader board bore South Korean flags for most of the day.

But Fort Worth resident Gerina Piller charged the front nine (her second nine holes of the day) to get within a shot of first-round leader and McKinney resident Mu Jung Hur, who had a 5-under 66.

Piller, who tied for third last week in California, was in second at 67 along with Korean Olympic hopefuls So Yeon Ryu and Eun-Hee Ji.

Four others, including Scotland’s Catriona Matthew, were two shots behind. Still, six of the top eight players were South Koreans. Fort Worth’s Angela Stanford was at 70.

Knight teed off with the first group, when the greens were softer and more forgiving. In her LPGA debut, she birdied the par-4 first hole.

After a bogey at No. 5, a bounce-back birdie put her back in the red numbers, where she stayed the rest of the way.

She dropped a 40-foot birdie on No. 12 to get to 2 under before the bogey at the par-3 17th.

“My caddie was just like, ‘hit it hard, it’s up the hill here’ and it broke a little left,” Knight said of the 40-foot putt. “I definitely hit it hard, it broke into the hole and hit the back of the hole but went right in.”

Piller’s late afternoon rally led a group of American challengers that included Jacqui Concolino, Danielle Kang, Casey Grice and Alison Walshe.

The latter four all shot 2-under 69 and were the only other Americans to sneak inside the top 10 at some point.

On the bench

Hur had a novel approach to deciding on a putter for her starting lineup that led to sole leadership.

Rather than take just one, the two-time LPGA winner grabbed an older putter, an Odyssey White Ice 2-ball blade, from her home in McKinney and substituted it for a 5-hybrid in the first round.

“It’s 5 years old,” Hur said. “I just used the older one and didn’t pull out my regular putter today.

“My putting was everything today. My shots weren’t that good and my address wasn’t that comfortable, but my putting did really well, and I had five birdies and finished strong.”

Hur is coming off a tie for sixth last week in the San Francisco area and has two other top 15s on the season.

She tied for 25th last year at the Shootout, her best finish in three starts at Las Colinas Country Club.

Rain, rain ...

The weather forecast for Friday is rain, mostly severe morning thunderstorms with only intermittent sunshine throughout the day.

Playing conditions, however, could be more favorable.

“We might have more birdie chances if the greens get a little softer,” South Korea’s So Yeon Ryu said. “Right now the greens are pretty firm, so if we get the rain, and you cannot predict that, we might be able to play more aggressive. It probably will be a little bit easier than today.”

The first-round scoring average for the field was almost a shot and a half over par (72.4), with just four holes playing under par on the day.

This story was originally published April 28, 2016 at 9:16 PM with the headline "Piller, Aledo grad create buzz in first round of LPGA Shootout."