Defending champion Lea Garner bogeyed the 18th hole Wednesday to drop into a tie for the lead after the first round of the Siegfried & Jensen Utah Women’s Open at East Bay Golf Course in Provo.
Annie Yang, like Garner a BYU graduate, shares the lead at 4-under-par 68 going into Thursday’s final round. Bingham High School’s Tess Blair, who won last week’s Women’s State Amateur, is tied for third with Las Vegas pro Catherine Kim.
Blair played her last 10 holes in 4-under par, extending her strong play from last week when she earned medalist honors in the stroke-play portion of the State Am and never had to go beyond the 16th hole in any of her four matches. Kim, the director of player development at the TPC at Summerlin, posted six birdies and three bogeys.
The starting field included 23 amateurs and 10 pros. Utah pros Emily Jones and Haley Sturgeon are in a group at 73, tied for seventh.
UTAH WOMEN’S OPEN
68 • Lea Garner, Annie Yang
69 • Catherine Kim, Tess Blair
71 • Kerstin Fotu
72 • Laura Gerner
73 • Marissa Louder, Emily Jones, Carly Dehlin, Haley Sturgeon
74 • Cassandra Campos, Dallas Christoffersen, Anna Kennedy, Jessica Sloot
76 • Sadie Palmer, Julie Erekson, Cailyn Cardall
77 • Karen Valcarce, Katrina Prendergrast, Ashley Malaska Moss
78 • Samantha Crawford, Sue Nyhus
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