Dow Championship Opens With Three-Team Tie And Plenty Of Personality
The Dow Championship is not supposed to feel like every other week on the LPGA Tour.
That is the point.
It is the one week on the LPGA schedule where a player does not have to carry every swing, every decision and every mistake by herself. It is the one week where a bad shot can be met with a laugh, a recovery swing from a partner and a little bit of shared responsibility.
Thursday at Midland Country Club, that format delivered exactly the kind of leaderboard it is built to create.
Hira Naveed and Gurleen Kaur, Camille Boyd and Michelle Zhang, and Nicole Broch Estrup and Gemma Dryburgh all opened with 3-under rounds in alternate shot to share the first-round lead at the Dow Championship.
Three teams. Three very different stories.
Two close friends who looked as comfortable with each other as they did with the golf course. Two rookies trying to turn a hard first LPGA season into something lighter and freer. Two new moms finding common ground in both golf and life.
That is the Dow at its best.
Round 1 Snapshot
Three Teams Share The Dow Lead
-3
Hira Naveed / Gurleen Kaur
Friendship, comfort and clutch putting fueled a strong alternate-shot start.
-3
Camille Boyd / Michelle Zhang
The rookie duo kept it light, leaned on momentum and brought "Team Baddies" to the top.
-3
Nicole Broch Estrup / Gemma Dryburgh
Two moms turned an early stumble into a calm, composed opening-round share of the lead.
Friendship Fuels Naveed And Kaur
Naveed and Kaur did not exactly overcomplicate things.
Their strategy was built around one basic decision: Kaur played the odd holes and Naveed played the even holes. According to Kaur, they did not even settle that plan until Wednesday night.
The more important part was not the math. It was the comfort.
Kaur said the two work well because they are close friends and because neither player makes the other feel burdened by a poor shot. It is not a partnership filled with apologies. It is more direct than that. One player hits the shot, the next player steps in and handles what comes next.
That is the great beauty of alternate shot when it works. It does not have to be perfect golf. It has to be trusting golf.
Naveed pointed to her approach play and Kaur's putting as the key combination. She also made clear that the day felt different than a standard individual round.
"This is the most fun I've had in a long time out on the golf course," Naveed said.
That matters.
In a format where one swing can put your partner in trouble, tension can build quickly. For Naveed and Kaur, the opposite seemed to happen. The friendship became the competitive advantage.
Friday brings a different challenge with four-ball, where both players play their own ball and the better score counts. Naveed said her length could let her be aggressive on some par 5s, while Kaur's iron accuracy could be a weapon on the par 3s.
Kaur's plan sounded even simpler.
Go with the flow. Have fun. Deal with whatever comes next.
That may not sound like a detailed tournament blueprint, but after a share of the first-round lead, it is hard to argue with it.
Team Baddies Brings Rookie Energy
Boyd and Zhang may have the best team name near the top of the board.
Team Baddies.
It fits the week, and it fits the vibe they brought to Thursday's opening round.
Their partnership, according to Zhang, came together casually in Mexico. She asked Boyd if she wanted to play. Boyd said yes. That was about it.
Sometimes, that is all the Dow needs.
Both are rookies. Both are still learning the weekly rhythm, pressure and grind of LPGA life. Zhang was honest about the fact that neither player has had the season she wanted so far. That made Thursday feel like more than just a good score.
It felt like a reset.
Instead of every mistake feeling heavy, each player had someone else walking beside her who understood the same rookie nerves. Zhang described the mindset perfectly. Hit a bad shot, and Boyd has her. Put Boyd in a tough spot, and Zhang is ready to pick her up.
"I got you, dog; don't worry about it," Zhang said.
That is not normal tournament language. It is better.
Boyd said they did not spend much time building a complicated plan. She took the odd holes, Zhang took the evens and they tried to keep the round light. Boyd admitted they did not feel like they both hit it great, but Zhang putted well and they rode that momentum.
That can be the secret to this championship. In alternate shot, a team does not always need two players striping it at the same time. It needs one player to cover a weakness, the other to catch fire at the right moment and both to stay connected emotionally.
Boyd and Zhang did that.
Now, four-ball gives them a chance to be freer. More swings. More birdie chances. More chances for Team Baddies to lean into the same personality that helped them get into the lead.
The Human Side Of The Dow
Why This Leaderboard Works
Friends At The Top
Naveed and Kaur leaned into trust, comfort and the freedom that comes from knowing your partner well.
Rookies Playing Free
Boyd and Zhang turned a stressful first LPGA season into a lighter, more connected week.
Moms With Perspective
Broch Estrup and Dryburgh brought shared life experience and a calm competitive rhythm to Midland.
Two Moms Find A Stress-Free Start
Broch Estrup and Dryburgh gave the leaderboard its most grounded story.
Both are moms. Both understand how much life changes when golf is no longer the only thing waiting after the round. On Thursday, they were not just talking through yardages, clubs and strategy. They were talking about their sons.
That shared reality seemed to make the day feel easier.
Broch Estrup summed up the golf part quickly. Put it in the fairway, let Dryburgh stuff approaches and avoid big trouble. The team did make two early bogeys on Nos. 2 and 3, but recovered with a strong run the rest of the way.
Dryburgh called it "pretty stress-free."
Broch Estrup agreed.
That phrase stands out because alternate shot rarely feels stress-free. One player's tee ball becomes the other player's problem. One poor wedge leaves the other with a testy par putt. One decision belongs to both players.
Yet Dryburgh and Broch Estrup made it look manageable.
Their odd-even setup also fit the course. Dryburgh played the odd holes and Broch Estrup the evens, with Dryburgh noting that Broch Estrup's added length made the pairing work well strategically.
Then came the best line of the day when Broch Estrup was asked about the Friday mindset.
"Go at every pin," she said with a laugh.
She backed off that slightly, but the point was clear. Thursday was about controlling damage in alternate shot. Friday is a different game. With four-ball, there is more room to attack.
Dryburgh said she would probably try to get the ball in play first and then let Broch Estrup go.
That is how good teams think. One player creates freedom. The other uses it.
The Chase Is Already Crowded
Why Friday Changes Everything
From Survival Mode To Birdie Mode
Round 1: Alternate Shot
One ball. Shared pressure. Every miss immediately becomes your partner's next shot.
Round 2: Four-Ball
Two balls. More chances. One player can play safe while the other attacks flags.
Pressure Point
The cut comes after Friday, with the low 33 teams and ties advancing.
The Dow Championship can change quickly because the formats keep changing.
A team that survives alternate shot can explode in four-ball. A team that stays close through the first two rounds can put itself in real position before Saturday's return to alternate shot.
That makes the chasing pack important.
Several teams are just one shot back at 2-under, including Lindy Duncan and Leona Maguire, Carlota Ciganda and Polly Mack, Linn Grant and Maja Stark, Chisato Iwai and Akie Iwai, Alison Lee and Lilia Vu, and Ayaka Furue and Yuna Nishimura.
That is not a soft group.
World No. 1 Nelly Korda and Olivia Cowan opened at even par, as did defending champions Jin Hee Im and Somi Lee. They are not out of it, but they will need to take advantage of Friday's better-ball format to move before the cut.
That is the tension of this championship. It feels fun, but it is not casual.
The Dow asks players to solve a different puzzle every day. Thursday rewarded trust. Friday will reward aggression. Saturday will bring back the stress of alternate shot. Sunday, if teams can get there, becomes a final sprint in four-ball.
For now, the top of the leaderboard belongs to three teams that make the tournament feel exactly the way it should.
Friends. Rookies. Moms.
All tied for the lead. All doing it their own way.
PGA of America Golf Professional Brendon Elliott is an award-winning coach and golf writer who serves as Athlon Sports Senior Golf Writer. Read his recent "The Starter" on R.org, where he is their Lead Golf Writer. To stay updated on all of his latest work, sign up for his newsletter or visit his MuckRack Profile.
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This story was originally published June 11, 2026 at 5:01 PM.