Rio Takeda and Eri Okayama of Japan shot matching rounds of 67 to take the lead after one round of the AIG Women’s Open on Thursday in Porthcawl, Wales.
Takeda and Okayama are 5 under par after one trip around Royal Porthcawl, and Miyu Yamashita made it an all-Japanese top three on the leaderboard as she turned in a 4-under 68.
Behind them is a 10-way tie at 3-under 69 that features three more Japanese players — Chisato Iwai, Shiho Kuwaki and Mao Saigo, who won the Chevron Championship earlier this year. The only American in that tie is Alexa Pano.
Takeda is vying for her first major title after finishing in a tie for second at the U.S. Women’s Open in June.
Takeda shot her 67 despite committing a double bogey at the par-5 ninth, a hole where other players were making birdie or even eagle Thursday. Takeda made seven birdies, including at four of her last seven holes.
It was a similar story for Okayama, who’s ranked No. 139 in the world and whose only previous wins have come in Japan. Okayama’s lone blemish was a bogey on her first hole, but she responded by making five birdies on the rest of the front nine before getting one final birdie to drop at No. 17.
Yamashita’s round was highlighted by a four-birdie run at Nos. 4-7, followed by eagle at No. 9.
Pano also eagled the ninth to wrap up a 3-under front nine. The 20-year-old had two bogeys and two birdies the rest of the way.
“When it comes to links golf, you’re just trying to stay focused on the shot in front of you,” Pano said. “I think that’s the biggest thing is trying to control what you can control. For me, it’s all mental out here.”
The two star players who commanded the most attention were World No. 1 Nelly Korda and British phenom Lottie Woad.
Korda, still looking for her first win of any kind in 2025, is just three back of the lead following a 2-under 70. She rolled in a birdie at the par-5 18th after a quiet but steady round that included a run of nine straight pars.
“Sometimes you’re like, ‘Well, scorecard doesn’t have pictures so doesn’t matter that you kind of (play a hole) from left to right,’ which that did happen to me a couple times,” Korda said. “You know, you kind of do hit it — once you’re in one of those bunkers you’re having a 6- or 7-iron into the green and having to scramble. So that’s what this type of golf is about.”
Several other notable names are tied at 70, including World No. 2 Jeeno Thitikul of Thailand and former major winners Ayaka Furue of Japan, Minjee Lee of Australia and Koreans Amy Yang and A Lim Kim.
Then there was Woad, whose even-par 72 featured four birdies and four bogeys. She was never better than 1 under or worse than 1 over during her round.
“It was a bit mixed,” Woad said of her round. “Had a good amount of birdies; just few poor bogeys on the front nine that could have definitely been avoided.”
The 21-year-old came in on a heater — wins at the Women’s Irish Open and Women’s Scottish Open sandwiching a T3 finish at the Evian Championship, the most recent major. Woad turned pro earlier this month after a decorated amateur career.
“Obviously coming off Scottish it was coming straight into this which is a big week, so just trying to move on from that as much as possible, treat this as its own event,” Woad said.
–Field Level Media
