Ayaka Furue leads after first round of 2022 Evian Championship

Ayaka Farue (YouTube)

The first round is in the books at the 2022 Evian Masters in France, and the leader is Ayaka Furue of Japan. The 22-year-old from Kobe, Japan shot a first round score of eight-under-par, and has a one stroke lead over Canada’s Brooke Henderson and American Nelly Korda.

Furue had nine birdies and a bogey in her opening round on Thursday. She birdied the second, third, sixth, seventh, ninth, 14th, 15th, 16th, and 18th holes, and bogeyed the unlucky 13th hole.

Henderson and Korda are each at -7. American Cheyenne Knight is in fourth place at -6. Meanwhile Yuna Nishimura of Japan, Charley Hull of England, Jin Young Ko of South Korea, Lydia Ko of New Zealand, and Perrine Delacour of France, are all three strokes back at -5.

Furue’s best major result to date was finishing in fourth place at the 2021 Evian Championship, which was won by Australia’s Minjee Lee. A year ago, Furue posted a score of -15, and only trailed Lee (-18), Jeong-eun Lee of South Korea (-18) and Yealimi Noh of the United States (-17). Minjee Lee beat Jeong-eun Lee in a one-hole playoff after Jeong-eun Lee’s second shot went into the water.

This is the first of four LPGA tournaments in Europe. It is followed by the Trust Golf Women’s Scottish Open next weekend at Dumbarnie Links in Fife, Scotland, the 2022 British Women’s Open a week later at Muirfield, and then the ISPS Handa World Invitational in Ballymena, Northern Ireland. Just like the Evian Championship, the British Women’s Open is also a major.

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