PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — It was Mark Twain summer time climate in California: cool temperatures and cloudy skies. As night time fell over the Monterey Peninsula, the identical query may have been requested of the sky because the leaderboard.

The place are the celebs?

It’s nonetheless extraordinarily early on the 78th U.S. Ladies’s Open — we’re solely 18 holes by — however to this point, the celebs are largely no-shows. Names like Donegan, Tardy and Moresco adorn the primary web page of the leaderboard, whereas the names golf followers are acquainted with are nowhere to be discovered.

Take world No. 1 Jin Younger Ko as our first instance. She was among the many match favorites coming into the week — for good motive — and her pinpoint precision along with her irons ought to portend to low scores at Pebble Seashore. With the tiniest greens you possibly can think about plus the problem of a USGA setup, hitting your spots is a should. However golf is a humorous sport, and even when all of the substances are in place, it’s not possible to foretell.

Ko, teeing off on the tenth within the chilly morning wave, bogeyed Nos. 10, 12, 14 and 16, and proceeded to make a double at 17. She took 42 strokes to get round her first 9 and tumbled down the leaderboard earlier than half the sector even teed off. Issues have been a bit higher on her second 9, however with just one birdie towards two bogeys, she signed for a seven-over 79 in Spherical 1 and sits T126 after 18 holes.

Ko performed alongside world No. 2 Nelly Korda, whose play wasn’t significantly better. She got here out of the gates with a double on her first gap and etched three extra squares on the cardboard earlier than the flip. Korda’s swing has been a piece in progress of late (she’s simply switched swing coaches), and she or he’s carried out every thing she will be able to consider to search out her method. She was out and in of the TaylorMade truck early within the week searching for a driver-shaft mixture she was snug with, however no quantity of tinkering may salvage her opening spherical at this Ladies’s Open. With a 76 on the board Thursday, she’s T83 after one spherical.

Nos. 3 and 4 within the Rolex Rankings didn’t fare any significantly better. Lydia Ko limped her solution to a 76 of her personal, whereas Lilia Vu posted a 79. In case your betting choices have been knowledgeable by the world rankings, we ship our condolences.

Among the many week’s potential fairytale endings was the final hurrah of Michelle Wie West, who’s taking part in in her last U.S. Ladies’s Open — however she had struggles of her personal. Snake-bitten by a chilly putter, her farewell tour began with a whimper. She was unable to card a birdie all day and tripled the par-5 18th when she misplaced a ball within the Cypress tree guarding the inexperienced. Tomorrow will possible be the 33-year-old’s swan tune barring a classic efficiency.

The Tour’s latest, brightest star — and pre-tournament favourite! — Rose Zhang tried her finest to inject some pleasure into the championship as she birdied three of her first seven holes, however a double at No. 8 derailed her momentum. She was unable to card a birdie for the rest of the day and battled by the drizzle and chilly and impending darkness to get into the home at two over.

For those who have been hoping for the celebs to point out on the sport’s greatest stage, don’t panic: 18 holes of poor play remains to be too quickly to sound the alarm bells. Golf tournaments — particularly majors — are marathons, and those hoisting the trophies sometimes win the battle of attrition. The cream will possible rise to the highest as extra holes are performed and extra errors are made. However with such sloppy play from the celebs on Thursday, they’ve dug some deep holes. With the reduce looming tomorrow night, a lot of them might want to go low to even transfer onto Transferring Day.

Whereas a number of the sport’s high names disappeared on Day 1 at Pebble Seashore, there was house atop the leaderboard for different storylines to emerge. Xiyu “Janet” Lin, who paced the sector Thursday with a 68 has the possibility to avenge her heartbreak at Baltusrol, whereas Hyo Joo Kim can add main No. 2. Áine Donegan, the newbie from Eire, may develop into the primary am since 1967 to win this championship, whereas her countrywoman, Leona Maguire, appears to be like to cement her personal legacy as the subsequent Irish star.

Golf followers could be sensible to familiarize themselves with these names because the match heads to Spherical 2. If the second 18 holes are something like the primary, these names will supplant the prototypical stars because the favorites heading into the weekend.

Zephyr Melton

Golf.com Editor

Zephyr Melton is an assistant editor for GOLF.com the place he spends his days running a blog, producing and enhancing. Previous to becoming a member of the group at GOLF, he attended the College of Texas adopted by stops with the Texas Golf Affiliation, Workforce USA, the Inexperienced Bay Packers and the PGA Tour. He assists on all issues instruction and covers newbie and girls’s golf. He might be reached at zephyr_melton@golf.com.