Leona Maguire and Lauren Walsh are both well in contention after the first round of the Aramco Championship in Las Vegas.
The Irish duo hold a share of 11th place after their rounds of 70 left them on two under, three shots behind Lauren Coughlin and Japan's Nasa Hataoka and Miyu Yamashita who sit in a three-way tie atop the leaderboard.
The Aramco Championship, co-sanctioned by the LPGA and Ladies European Tour, features a purse of $4million (€3.5m) and replaces the T-Mobile Match Play on the schedule.
Maguire recovered from a bogey at her opening hole to make the turn in level par before hitting three birdies and a solitary on the back nice to sign for a 70.
Walsh had an even more dramatic turn around. Starting on the 10th hole, she hit three consecutive bogeys from the 13th to the 15th before a birdie on the 16th steadied the ship.
She then closed out her round with four birdies in her final six holes to shoot up the leaderboard.
Dublin golfer Anna Foster is also in action but she appears to be in a fight to make the cut after her round of 74 left her right on the projected cut mark of two over.
At the top of the leaderboard Coughlin, Hataoka and Yamashita posted rounds of 67. Three more are a shot further back: Nelly Korda, Jing Yan and South Korea's Hyo Joo Kim, who has won two straight LPGA Tour events entering the week.
Coughlin, 33, is trying to get back in contention for an LPGA victory after winning her first two titles in 2024 and being shut out in 2025.
She could have been the outright first-round leader after collecting six birdies through 17 holes, but she made her only misstep of the day with a bogey at her final hole, the par-four ninth.
"I feel like I know this place really well," said Coughlin, who lost in the final of the Match Play last year.
"Been in a lot of the places (on the course) that you don't want to be, so I feel like I've been able to ... I just know the spots that I need to land it to a lot of the pins, where to miss if you have to."
Additional reporting: Reuters
