MICHIGAN — Filipina Abegail Arevalo fired a three-under-par 69 to gain a share of seventh place, three strokes off the leader on Friday in the first round of the Island Resort Championship.
The 24-year-old Arevalo, a sophomore at the Epson Tour, made a strong showing after failing to make the cut in the previous two tournaments.
She birdied the 8th only to tumble with bogey on 12th. But Arevalo stood her ground against the Sweetgrass Golf Club, birdieing the last three holes to tie with six others.
Jessica Porvasnik of the United States and Tsai Ching Tseng of Taiwan were at the helm after similar bogey-free 66s.
Three other Filipinas Clariss Guce, Chanelle Avaricio and Bianca Pagdanganan came out strong with identical 70s.
Guce unloaded six birdies but also dropped four bogeys to tie 15 others at 14th place.
Pauline del Rosario skied with a 75, while Samantha Bruce struggled with 78 to teeter dangerously near cut-off.
“I stayed patient today, which was big for me,” said Porvasnik, who celebrated her 28th birthday. “I haven’t had a good start to my season, but I knew my game was close; it wasn’t far off. The course is in great shape, too, the greens are rolling really well, and this was just a good way to start my birthday.”
The Ohio native has been on a skid lately, only making one cut in her last five events played on the Epson Tour. Porvasnik put up a top-15 finish last week at the 2023 Inspirato Colorado Women’s Open and got her game moving in the right direction. Now, opening with a bogey-free round, Porvasnik feels her game is back on track after a mental reset.
“The round today gave me a huge boost of confidence,” Porvasnik said. “It adds a lot of momentum to my season as well and kind of gets my season going. I had a new mindset heading into the Colorado Open, and I am just trying to stick to the same gameplan this week.”
Tsai Ching Tseng is tied at the top with Porvasnik, who is making her first start on the Epson Tour. The Chinese Taipei native started her Epson Tour career in style, who, like Porvasnik, signed for a bogey-free 66 (-6) to start the Island Resort Championship. Tseng’s round started trending with her birdie on the fifth hole. She would birdie five out of her next 13 holes to tie Porvasnik’s lead heading into moving day.
“I was hitting my driver really good; I think I only missed two fairways,” said Tseng. “On the front nine, I did not hit my irons good, but I was able to make some really long putts for birdies. On the back, my irons started to get dialed in and it gave me more comfortable birdie putts.”
Trailing the two leaders by one shot is Natasha Andrea Oon, who was also able to get around Sweetgrass Golf Club without a square on the scorecard. Oon’s bogey-free 67 (-5) was highlighted by a run of four birdies in five holes on her first nine holes, with a birdie on her last hole of the day to move her into solo third.
Rounding out the rest of the top finishers are Hsin-Yu Lu, Lindsey McCurdy, and Teresa Toscano, who all were able to turn in cards of 68 (-4) and sit at T4 for the tournament.
