Chanelle Avaricio broke a run of pedestrian rounds with a one-under-par 71 at the start of the Firekeepers Casino Hotel Championship in Battle Creek, Michigan on Friday.
Avaricio birdied 17 to break par for the first time in the Epson Tour and emerged as the top performer among three Filipinas in action.
She earlier birdied a pair of par-3 holes against two bogeys.
Pauline del Rosario, who teed off at the back, rallied with two birdies coming home to salvage a 73. She had a slow start of three bogeys in the opening nine.
Abby Arevalo, on the other hand, carded a birdie-less 75.
Soo Jin Lee made seven birdies and one bogey to turn in a round of 66 and will take a one-shot lead heading into moving day.
“I’m trying to keep things simple and not worry about scores,” Lee said. “That’s what I did today. One shot at a time, and I didn’t think about what I was doing. I hit one shot, made the putts, and that’s how I ended today. The rest of the week, I’ll do the same.”
Lee lives in Australia and made the trip to Battle Creek when she found out she was getting into the field.
Behind Lee in a share of second is Savannah Vilaubi, who has already taken home one trophy this year at Copper Rock Championship.
The Epson Tour champion started her round hot with five birdies in her first 13 holes before finally making a bogey on her 14th hole. She would collect one more birdie coming in to fire a five-under 67, her best round since her week in Hurricane, Utah.
Kathleen Scavo joins Vilaubi at 67 for the day, who, like Vilaubi, was five-under through her first 13 holes before the first hiccup on her 14th hole of the day. Scavo found success early in the year at the Carlisle Arizona Women’s Golf Classic with a runner-up finish.
Since then, Scavo has yet to find the same success, but her game seems to be rounding back into form. She has made the last three cuts, with her first round today being the lowest round in that stretch. Scavo is sitting just outside the top 10 in the Race for the Card at No. 11, so a good performance this week can move her into a strong position heading into the week off.
“I’d say that I hit the ball really well. I hit a lot of good iron shots to put me in a good position for birdies,” Scavo said. “And my putter was hot today. I made some really good putts, especially some momentum putts to keep it going.”
Rounding out the rest of the top finishers are Kaleigh Telfer, Kristin Coleman and Min-G Kim, who all were able to turn in cards of 68 and sit at T4 for the tournament.
