Nelly Korda hits off the fourth tee during the first round of the LPGA Cognizant Founders Cup golf tournament on Thursday at Clifton, N.J. Seth Wenig/Associated Press
CLIFTON, N.J. — Nelly Korda is going to have some work to do to win a record sixth straight LPGA Tour title, especially the way Rose Zhang is playing.
Korda shot a relatively mistake-free 3-under 69 early in the first round of the Cognizant Founders Cup on Thursday and then could only watch as the 20-year-old Zhang tied the tournament record with a 63 in the afternoon to take the lead.
In her winning streak, Korda has never trailed by more than eight strokes after the opening round. The 25-year-old was six back in this one with a slew of players ahead of her heading into the second round at the Upper Montclair Country Club.
Rain was in the forecast the next two days.
Hannah Green, who has won twice on tour this year, including the JM Eagle Los Angeles Championship in the last tour event, also was at 69 along with Lydia Ko, who needs one more win to make the LPGA Hall of Fame.
PGA: Beau Hossler and Robert MacIntyre each shot 7-under 64 to share the first-round lead in the inaugural Myrtle Beach Classic.
Hossler had an eagle, six birdies and a bogey at Dunes Golf & Beach Club. The 29-year-old former Texas player is winless on the tour.
MacIntyre had eight birdies and a bogey.
Davis Thompson, Alistair Docherty, Zecheng Dou and Alejandro Tosti were a stroke back.
PGA TOUR CHAMPIONS: Padraig Harrington and Chris DiMarco shared the lead at the Regions Tradition when the already rain-delayed first round was suspended because of lightning in the area at Birmingham, Alabama.
The first round was scheduled to be completed Friday morning.
Harrington and DiMarco were 7 under through 13 holes in the first of five PGA Tour Champions majors this season. The round started more than three hours late because of heavy rain at Greystone, the second straight weekend rain has heavily impacted a Champions event.
Four players were at 5 under in partial rounds: Steve Flesch through 16 holes and Vijay Singh, Rod Pampling and Y.E. Yang after 11.
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