After round one at Midland Country Club, three teams share first place at 6-under at the Dow Championship. The first day of play consisted of the foursomes format – more commonly known as alternate shot – where the players take turns hitting shots throughout their round.
Chanettee Wannasaen and Jaravee Boonchant (Sloth Machine), Ruoning Yin and Atthaya Thitikul (Jin & Ronic), and Ally Ewing and Jennifer Kupcho (Ping-Pals) each shot rounds of 64 and co-lead at 6-under heading into day two.
Starting on No. 10, Team Sloth Machine had the round of the day in Midland, Mich., recording six birdies en route to a bogey-free round. The duo from Thailand made back-to-back birdies on holes 11 and 12 as well as holes 15 and 16 to make the turn at 4-under. Wannasaen and Boonchant then picked up two more birdies on their back nine on the par-4 5th and par-4 8th holes to wrap up the day.
“I think today, we were pretty solid. We hit many fairways, many greens, give ourselves a lot of opportunity to make birdies,” said Boonchant about the team’s performance. “With her (Wannasaen’s) putting, she's rolling everything. I think most of our birdies come from her. I think with us having her hitting on the even holes, it really works out well.”
Rolex Rankings No. 4 Yin and Rolex Rankings No. 12 Thitikul also started on No. 10 on Thursday. They picked up a quick birdie on the par-4 10th hole to start the day on a hot note before making three consecutive birdies on holes 12, 13 and 14, but their streak was cut short by their lone bogey of the day on No. 15.
Jin & Ronic quickly followed that mistake with a birdie on the par-4 16th hole and then proceeded to cap off their stellar front nine with a birdie on the 18th. Compared to their opening nine, the two good friends were much quieter on their back nine, making just one birdie on the par-3 7th to move to 6-under. Yin and Thitikul enjoyed their time together in the first round and couldn’t stop complimenting each other’s games in their post-round interview.
“Definitely we had a lot of fun,” said Yin. “Jeeno's putter is just so hot. You don't want to touch that. It's getting hot. My job was just to hit a shot, make sure the ball is on the green, and she'll make everything. It's pretty fun. We had a great time out there.”
Ping-Pals were the first to go off of the 10th tee in the afternoon wave. Ewing and Kupcho made back-to-back birdies on the 11th and 12th and picked up one last birdie on the iconic No. 18 at Midland Country Club to turn at 3-under overall. They bogeyed the first hole of their back nine but followed it up by going 3-under over their next two holes with a birdie on No. 2 and an eagle on the par-5 3rd hole.
Their eagle was one of few recorded during Thursday’s alternate-shot round. The former U.S. Solheim Cup teammates carded their last birdie on the par-4 6th and parred in to finish with a 64. Both players have past experience at this course, with Ewing making her third start in the event and Kupcho playing as a past champion, having won the Dow Championship in 2022 alongside Lizette Salas.
“I think it's a nice change of pace. We just came from a golf course that's a mental and demanding golf course, and you get to play partner golf, which is something that we don't get to do a whole lot,” said Ewing of the Dow Championship. “This course is a fun course to play in this format, so it's a nice change of pace, especially at this point in the year. It's the midway point, and it's nice to have something a little bit different and be able to lean on each other to play.”
Two teams, Team Hot Pot (Ssu-Chia Cheng and Wei-Ling Hsu) and Team AJ (Jennifer Chang and Annie Park), are tied for fourth with rounds of 65. Cheng and Hsu are making their debuts at the Dow Championship this year, while Chang and Park are recording their fourth and fifth starts at this event, respectively, but it’s their first time playing as partners. Thirteen teams sit within three shots of the lead ahead of Friday’s four-ball round.
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