Two tied for lead at LPGA Symetra Tour’s Sara Bay Classic after windy first round

With the golf season so short in her native Finland, Emily Penttilä needed to get innovative to improve her game.

Five months spent indoors working on her technique and fitness each winter doesn’t equate to practical course results.

But Penttilä’s game, which began when she was 11, flourished in just five years.

She made the Finnish national team, which allowed her to travel around Europe for camps to train. Then she moved to Sweden to attend a boarding school in 2010.

Her family followed suit, and Penttilä’s skills grew even more as she landed a spot with Tulane’s women’s golf team for college.

It’s probably why Penttilä is the only Finnish women’s professional golfer on either the LPGA Tour or the Symetra Tour this year.

“I want to build a culture where more Finnish players want to play the Symetra Tour,” Penttilä said.

Now her game is blossoming at the 2017 Sara Bay Classic, an LPGA Symetra Tour event at Sara Bay Country Club.

Penttilä is tied with Colombia’s Paola Moreno for the lead after the two posted 2-under-par 70s in Friday’s windy first round.

Sara Bay’s 6,424-yard layout gave and took plenty from the 144-player field on Friday.

For Penttilä, that meant notching carding five birdies and three bogeys.

Penttilä is just a rookie on the LPGA Symetra Tour, and that isn’t the usual recipe for success on the difficult Donald Ross-designed track in southern Manatee County, which boasts an average winning score of about 2-under par.

But she partnered with her assistant coach, Marcus Blomqvist, to devise a plan for Sara Bay through practice rounds and Wednesday’s pro-am.

Plus, Penttilä has previous experience on Donald Ross courses. She played in the 2014 U.S. Women’s Open at Pinehurst No. 2 in North Carolina, which is arguably the most famous Ross design.

“We worked on some of those pitch shots that’s kind of up the hill ... so I think I was really prepared with all the preparations we did (for this tournament),” Penttilä said.

Penttilä, though, produced a consistent tee-to-green round, and that helped her polish off a first round that ended with a 20-foot birdie on the par-5 ninth hole.

Meanwhile, Moreno’s pivotal moment came on the 147-yard eighth. With the wind gusting from right to left, Moreno pondered her aiming point on the hole. As a player that draws the ball, Moreno snagged her 5-iron and stepped to the tee box.

The result, though, was a shot that drifted too far to the left side of the green. That left Moreno with a delicate, short-sided pitch.

“I didn’t have the best lie,” Moreno said. “You just want to have a chance to make par, so I gave myself a chance and I didn’t make it. That’s OK. You move on.”

The ninth hole — Moreno’s 18th — followed. Earlier in the round, it was a hole players attacked with ease and it created lots of birdie chances.

When Moreno reached it in the late afternoon, the wind was directly in her face, preventing any chance of reaching it in two.

So Moreno laid up, playing her second shot to about 65 yards from the hole. Her pitch stopped about 10 feet below the hole.

The birdie effort for sole possession of the lead lipped out.

“It was left to right,” Moreno said. “I think it just didn’t break and I was a little bit more aggressive than I should’ve (been).”

Penttilä and Moreno lead three players by a shot. They are Princess Supral of the Phillipines, Australia’s Hannah Green and Hawaii’s Nicole Sakamoto.

IMG Academy’s Mika Liu posted the best score among locals with a 2-over par 74 to tie for 14th place.

Players return to the course for Saturday’s second round, where just the top 60 and ties will make the cut for Sunday’s final round.

Paola Moreno 35-35 70 -2

Emily Penttilä 35-35 70 -2

Princess Superal 34-37 71 -1

Nicole Sakamoto 38-33 71 -1

Hannah Green 37-34 71 -1

Luciane Lee 37-35 72 E

Celine Boutier 33-39 72 E

Allison Emrey 36-36 72 E

Erica Popson 35-37 72 E

Benyapa Niphatsophon 35-37 72 E

Manuela Carbajo Re 36-37 73 +1

Mind Muangkhumsakul 37-36 73 +1

Elizabeth Szokol 38-35 73 +1

Jane Rah 36-38 74 +2

Chirapat Jao-Javanil 38-36 74 +2

Shannon Fish 36-38 74 +2

Ruixin Liu 35-39 74 +2

Brianna Do 37-37 74 +2

Maia Schechter 37-37 74 +2

Madison Pressel 37-37 74 +2

Mika Liu (a) 37-37 74 +2

Jenny Coleman 38-36 74 +2

Nanna Koerstz Madsen 35-39 74 +2

Lindsey Weaver 36-38 74 +2

Nannette Hill 35-39 74 +2

Lacey Agnew 38-36 74 +2

Carleigh Silvers 38-36 74 +2

Haeji Kang 38-37 75 +3

Hyemin Kim 38-37 75 +3

Sophia Popov 37-38 75 +3

Augusta James 39-36 75 +3

Margarita Ramos 36-39 75 +3

Paula Hurtado 38-37 75 +3

Ani Gulugian 37-38 75 +3

Elizabeth Tong 38-37 75 +3

Raegan Bremer 38-37 75 +3

Charlotte Thomas 39-36 75 +3

Alice Barbieri 38-37 75 +3

Sara-Maude Juneau 40-35 75 +3

Katie Kempter 37-38 75 +3

Jennifer Kirby 37-38 75 +3

Mia Piccio 36-39 75 +3

Kristy McPherson 38-38 76 +4

Anne-Catherine Tanguay 37-39 76 +4

Yu Liu 40-36 76 +4

Rachel Rohanna 37-39 76 +4

Rebecca Artis 37-39 76 +4

Jean Reynolds 36-40 76 +4

Becca Huffer 36-40 76 +4

Caroline Inglis 35-41 76 +4

Christina Foster 40-36 76 +4

Desiree Dubreuil 38-38 76 +4

Lauren Kim 38-38 76 +4

Jenna Peters 40-36 76 +4

Savannah Vilaubi 39-37 76 +4

Jessica Welch 39-37 76 +4

Mindy Kim 38-38 76 +4

Natalie Sheary 41-35 76 +4

Charlotte Jaengkit 40-37 77 +5

Brittany Benvenuto 40-37 77 +5

Christine Meier 39-38 77 +5

Amy Ihm 38-39 77 +5

Janie Jackson 37-40 77 +5

Brittany Marchand 38-39 77 +5

Christine Song 41-36 77 +5

Alejandra Cangrejo 41-36 77 +5

Lindsey McPherson 40-37 77 +5

Clariss Guce 40-37 77 +5

Lorie Kane 39-38 77 +5

Alejandra Llaneza 37-40 77 +5

Liv Cheng 39-38 77 +5

Casey Kennedy 40-37 77 +5

Julia Roth 38-39 77 +5

Laura Wearn 40-37 77 +5

Veronica Felibert 41-37 78 +6

Marita Engzelius 41-37 78 +6

Sara Banke 41-37 78 +6

Christina Miller 37-41 78 +6

Allie Knight 39-39 78 +6

Marion Ricordeau 37-41 78 +6

Bertine Strauss 40-38 78 +6

Kendall Dye 39-39 78 +6

Ericka Schneider 39-39 78 +6

Cindy LaCrosse 41-37 78 +6

Kassidy Teare 40-38 78 +6

Daniela Iacobelli 42-36 78 +6

Sammi Stevens 40-38 78 +6

Alison Walshe 39-39 78 +6

Nobuhle Dlamini 39-39 78 +6

Cyna Rodriguez 42-36 78 +6

Kate Machado 41-38 79 +7

Lora Assad 41-38 79 +7

Kristin Coleman 40-39 79 +7

Grace Na 38-41 79 +7

Emma Talley 41-38 79 +7

Brogan McKinnon 43-36 79 +7

Louise Ridderström 40-39 79 +7

Gabriella Wahl 39-40 79 +7

Ginger Howard 42-37 79 +7

Selanee Henderson 39-40 79 +7

Prima Thammaraks 37-42 79 +7

Isi Gabsa 39-40 79 +7

Lori Beth Adams 41-39 80 +8

Sandra Angulo Minarro 40-40 80 +8

Jenni Jenq 40-40 80 +8

Kim Welch 41-39 80 +8

Monifa Sealy 37-43 80 +8

Emily McLennan 41-39 80 +8

Carlie Yadloczky 41-39 80 +8

Doris Chen 41-39 80 +8

Emma Jandel 41-39 80 +8

Mallory Kent 42-38 80 +8

Daniela Darquea 41-40 81 +9

Nicole Jeray 43-38 81 +9

Liz Breed 42-39 81 +9

Portland Rosen 42-39 81 +9

Avery George 40-41 81 +9

Kaitlyn Price 43-38 81 +9

Jayde Panos 41-41 82 +10

Taylor Kim 43-39 82 +10

Michelle Piyapattra 39-43 82 +10

Ashlan Ramsey 41-41 82 +10

Megan Osland 43-39 82 +10

Katelyn Sepmoree 39-43 82 +10

Alexis Keating 43-39 82 +10

Emily Childs 44-38 82 +10

Silvia Cavalleri 44-39 83 +11

Jean Chua 43-40 83 +11

Erynne Lee 43-40 83 +11

Marissa Dodd 42-41 83 +11

JiaYi Zhou 39-44 83 +11

Dottie Ardina 43-40 83 +11

Csicsi Rózsa 43-40 83 +11

Lili Alvarez 41-42 83 +11

Jordan Britt 42-41 83 +11

Kaitlin Park 47-37 84 +12

Kanyanat Saithip (a) 41-43 84 +12

T138 Ashleigh Albrecht 45-40 85 +13

T138 Amber Hensley 43-42 85 +13

Hannah Collier 40-46 86 +14

Elizabeth Nagel 43-43 86 +14

This story was originally published April 21, 2017 at 8:57 PM with the headline "Two tied for lead at LPGA Symetra Tour’s Sara Bay Classic after windy first round."