Three pairs share lead at LPGA's only teams event

Americans Ally Ewing and Jennifer Kupcho carded an eagle on their way to a six-under 64 to be part of  a three-team tie for the lead after the first round of the Dow Championship.

Chanettee Wannasaen and Jaravee Boonchant of Thailand, and the team of China's Ruoning Yin and Thailand's Atthaya Thitikul joined Ewing and Kupcho at 64 after the first round at Midland Country Club in Michigan.

The only official teams event on the LPGA schedule, the Dow Championship had players compete in foursomes (alternate shot) on Thursday (local time) and they will do so again on Saturday.

The field will play four-ball (best ball) in the second and final rounds.

Ewing and Kupcho started their day on the back nine and birdied the 11th and 12th holes before a run of pars. After a birdie at No.18 and a bogey at the first, they went birdie-eagle at the next two holes.

"We're both pretty consistent," Ewing said.

"Just kind of trusting each other and knowing our games and able to roll in some putts, and certainly a three on a par-5 is always going to help, with only two out here."

Kupcho, a one-time major champion, said she sees every hole at Midland as a birdie hole. She's playing with Ewing, who is on the biggest "heater" of her career with three straight top-five finishes, including at two majors.

"I asked her about 20 times," Kupcho said of teaming up with Ewing, "and then she finally said yes."

"We have played (the) Solheim (Cup). We've never played together, so it's been fun kind of knowing that our games are very similar to put them up together," Ewing said.

Boonchant and Wannasaen had the only bogey-free card among the trio at the top.

"We hit many fairways, many greens, give ourselves ... a lot of opportunity to make birdies," Boonchant said.

"With (Wannasaen's) putting, she's like rolling everything. I think most of our birdies come from her."

Yin and Thitikul also started on the back nine and rang up six birdies and a bogey for a five-under 30. They added one final birdie at the par-3 seventh to get to six under.

"(Thitikul's) putter is just so hot. You don't want to touch that. It's getting hot," Yin joked.

"My job was just to hit a shot, just make sure the ball is on the green, and she'll make everything. It's pretty fun."

Americans Jennifer Chang and Annie Park, and Taiwan's Ssu-Chia Cheng and Wei-Ling Hsu are one off the pace at five under.

American Lexi Thompson and Canadian Brooke M Henderson eagled the par-5 third en route to a bogey-free four under 66.

They are tied for sixth with Englishwomen Charley Hull and Georgia Hall, as well as Yealimi Noh and South Korea's A Lim Kim.

South Korea's Amy Yang, coming off her first major title last week in the Women's PGA, teamed with American Jennifer Song for a 73.