![\"Minjee](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/4f17c5068696c2deea1b50231cbc0eeb.jpeg\")
Minjee Lee leads the early Aussie charge at the Women’s British Open golf championship, at Royal Porthcawl Golf Club in Porthcawl, Wales, Thursday, July 31, 2025. (AP Photo\/Kin Cheung)Source: AP<\/p>\n
A large group of players were at three under par on a congested leaderboard as three Australians went under par.<\/p>\n
Minjee Lee, who won the Women\u2019s PGA Championship in June and is chasing the final piece of a career grand slam, also finished with a two-under 70, her round including sinking a monster birdie putt on the par-3 15th hole.<\/p>\n
Lee battled some wild and windy morning conditions and was satisfied with a round that featured three bogeys and five birdies.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019m going to complain with a two-under start,\u201d Lee told AAP.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome of the holes are just beasts out there.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes you\u2019ve got to take what you get and just make a bogey and get out of there and reset, try and make better score on the next hole.\u201cIt\u2019s a major championship. You\u2019\u2019re going to make bogeys. Just try to keep your emotions in check and take it one shot at a time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fellow Australian Grace Kim, who triumphed at the recent Evian Championship, is a further shot back at one under par, alongside compatriot Gabriela Ruffels who also carded a 71.<\/p>\n
Takeda, 22, bounced back strongly from a double-bogey seven at the ninth with four birdies down the stretch while Okayama opened with a bogey five before sinking six birdies.<\/p>\n
Defending champion Lydia Ko finished one over while world number one Nelly Korda is three off the lead after a two-under 70, finishing with a birdie after nine straight pars.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had a double bogey today, but I was able to quickly change my mindset and it was good that I was able to do that,\u201d said Takeda.<\/p>\n
\u201cOther than that, I was able to save par and make some birdie putts, so I played very consistently.\u201d Okayama\u2019s 67 was particularly impressive as she has been troubled by a back injury in recent months.<\/p>\n
Rio Takeda of Japan competes during the first round of the Women’s British Open golf championship, at Royal Porthcawl Golf Club in Porthcawl, Wales, Thursday, July 31, 2025. (AP Photo\/Kin Cheung)Source: AP<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve hurt my back a few times this year, within the last month or so, and since then I\u2019ve had to take a break from domestic tournaments,\u201d said the 29-year-old.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve barely been able to practise up until this point. I never expected to finish in this position.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pre-tournament favourite Lottie Woad, playing at her first major as a professional, ended her round on level par, upstaged by English compatriot Mimi Rhodes, who finished her round two off the lead.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s one of those rounds that could have got away from me so I am happy I hung in there,\u201d said Woad, fresh from winning the Women\u2019s Scottish Open last week.<\/p>\n
The rest of the Australians in the field were over par with Stephanie Kyriacou (+2), Kirsten Rudgeley (+6), Hira Naveed (+6) Cassie Porter (+7) and world No.11 Hannah Green (+7) needing big second rounds to avoid missing the cut.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Several of Australia\u2019s top hopes are off to strong starts at the final women\u2019s golf major of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":36830,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[2620,64,63,33377,33376,33382,33380,33378,755,941,33374,33379,33381,85,33375,10911],"class_list":["post-36829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-agence-france-presse","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-birdie-putts","tag-domestic-tournaments","tag-english-compatriot","tag-fellow-australian","tag-fellow-australian-grace-kim","tag-golf","tag-japan","tag-japanese-players","tag-mimi-rhodes","tag-set-pace","tag-sports","tag-takeda-pharmaceutical","tag-world-number"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36829\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}