PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — Xiyu Janet Lin and Hyo Joo Kim had rounds that matched the beauty at Pebble Beach, each of them with a 4-under 68 on Thursday to share the lead in the first U.S. Women’s Open held at one of America’s most famous courses.
With only mild wind and a marine layer over the Monterey Peninsula that kept temperatures in the 50s, this was the gentle version of Pebble Beach. This also is a U.S. Open, and it didn’t take much to take a toll, especially at the top.
The top four players in the world ranking were a combined 22 over par. Jin Young Ko, the No. 1 player in women’s golf, and Lilia Vu, who won the first LPGA major of the year, each shot 79.
Rose Zhang, the 20-year-old Stanford sensation who won in her pro debut last month, wasted a good start with a double bogey on the eighth hole that slowed her momentum. She didn’t make a birdie the rest of the way, and had to chip on her last four holes — one of them from the wrong side of the green on the par-3 17th just as Gary Woodland did in 2019 when he won the U.S. Open.
Lin began her round on the tough par-4 10th hole, and she saved par on four of her opening five holes before holing an 8-foot birdie putt on the 15th. The Chinese player’s lone bogey came at the end when she failed to get…
