Water was simply as vital as birdies for Minjee Lee, who pushed via 35-degrees Celcius warmth on the opening day of the Girls’s PGA Championship outdoors Dallas to sit down second on the leaderboard because the Australian star chases down a file purse and a 3rd main championship.
An enormous $US2.4 million ($A3.7 million) is on provide to the winner at Fields Ranch East and regardless of being an area now — having made Dallas her US base — Lee stated the attempting situations, with extra warmth forecast, would take a toll.
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Lee bogeyed her opening gap and two of her last three holes to surrender the outright lead, having peeled off seven birdies, and one other bogey, in between to card a gap spherical three-under 69, which left her one shot adrift of Thailand’s Jeeno Thitkul.
“I simply stored telling my caddie, are you able to give me one other water, are you able to give me one other water?” Lee stated after her spherical.
“I don’t suppose we might have sufficient on the market. It’s actually sizzling.
“It’s the identical for everybody. I imply, if it’s powerful for me it’s going be powerful for just about the entire discipline. Simply attempt to use my umbrella to shade the solar and the extra wind we now have.
“You may’t get forward of your self, particularly in this sort of climate. I believe it’s extra simply the warmth that’s draining your focus, so it’s going to be a giant issue.”
Lee was one of many few within the discipline to have performed the course earlier than it was arrange for the US12 million ($A18.5m) PGA Championship and stated it had been made more durable, as a significant ought to, grateful she had assist discovering a few of her errant tee photographs.
“Clearly, it’s totally different. The tough is far thicker,” she stated.
“When you hit it simply off the fairways you may … I imply, I’m grateful for the volunteers as a result of I couldn’t discover my ball among the occasions.
“Just about you may solely see perhaps a 3rd of the ball, simply the highest, so once I got here to practise it was a little bit bit extra dormant, so the tough hadn’t fairly are available but. I believe that’s the massive distinction.
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“The greens are a little bit bit faster and it’s simply in event … it’s arrange for event play now and earlier than it was simply the members might nonetheless play and we might play, so it was not the identical in any respect.”
Lee sits in outright second, one shot forward of South Koreans Ryu Hae-ran and Somi Lee, with Japan’s Rio Takeda additionally sharing third spot.
Fellow Australians Stephanie Kyriacou (72) and Grace Kim (73) made stable begins whereas Karis Davidson +1 via 13 holes as the primary spherical continued late on Thursday.