Sung Hyun Park, Jenny Shin share LPGA Texas Classic lead after first round

THE COLONY, Texas – Sung Hyun Park and Jenny Shin finished the rain-delayed first round of the abbreviated LPGA Texas Classic on Saturday with 6-under 65s to share a one-stroke lead.

After Thursday’s play was canceled and Friday’s began after an 8 1/2-hour rain delay, the tournament was reduced from 72 holes to 36. There will be no cut, but only the top 70 and ties in the 144-woman field will win prize money.

The second round began Saturday afternoon before the first round ended. Park and Shin were scheduled to start their final rounds Sunday afternoon.

Park, last year’s U.S. Women’s Open champion and the top-ranked player in the field at No. 5, had seven birdies and one bogey at the 6,475-yard Old American Golf Club, which is hosting the event for the first time. She was 6 under when play was halted on Friday and parred her remaining four holes on Saturday.

Shin, also from South Korea, was 4-under through 14 on Friday. On Saturday, she birdied the par-3 seventh and the par-4 ninth. Shin’s only career LPGA Tour win was two years ago at this tournament’s previous home, Las Colinas Country Club in Irving.

Denmark’s Nicole Broch Larsen and Thailand’s Moriya Jutanugarn were among those playing their second rounds Saturday and making a run at the lead. Jutanugarn, who won at Los Angeles two weeks ago, shot a first-round 66, sandwiching eight birdies between an opening double bogey and a closing bogey.

After heavy rains and gusty wind Thursday and Friday, Saturday featured bright sunshine and high temperatures in the low 80s.

This will be the LPGA Tour’s first 36-hole event since the Bahamas-LPGA Classic in May 2013, which was cut short because of flooding.