And, with five other golfers shooting par over the first 18, only 11 players ended up at level par or better in the first round. 

One of the players lurking just a shot back of the two leaders is Annabelle Pancake who is among a group of three golfers tied for third after Wednesday’s round at 2-under. Pancake, a senior this season at Clemson and a two-time All-ACC performer, had two birdies and 16 pars in her first round. Her birdies came back-to-back at the second and third holes. 

Pancake played in this year’s Augusta National Women’s Amateur. She finished seventh at the recent NCAA tournament and was the runner-up in The Women’s Amateur Championship last summer. 

Also at 2-under are Ohio State’s Kary Hollenbaugh and Alabama high-school golfer Scarlett Schremmer who was recently named to the U.S. National Junior Team. She is committed to play collegiate golf at Miami after high school. 

The lone player at 1-under par is Alabama freshman Kaitlyn Schroeder, who is from nearby Jacksonville, Fla., about an hour to the south of the tournament site. 

In the mix of players at even-par after the opening round is Kentucky standout Laney Frye who recently completed her outstanding career with the Lady Wildcats. Frye has finished second in each of the first three Sea Island Women’s Am tournaments. Last year, she took a five-shot lead into the closing round, but settled for a 72 over the final round and finished a stroke behind eventual champion Morgan Ketchum from Virginia Tech who shot 7-under 63 to emerge from the pack and claim the crown. 

The All-America player for the Lady Wildcats managed a 70 on Wednesday despite a double-bogey at the par-5 seventh hole. Frye had a birdie and five pars before playing the seventh hole. Frye rebounded with a pair of pars to make the turn at 1-over for the round. 

She would close the day with two birdies and a bogey on the inward nine to finish at level par after her first 18 holes and will start round two three shots off the lead pace. 

Ketchum, meantime, opened with a 5-over 75 on Wednesday as she began defense of her championship.  

For the first round, Gal was in the first group off the No. 1 tee as play opened with a two-tee start. 

She has spent a lot of time working on improving her iron play and is starting to see good results. 

“I’ve worked on it pretty much all year,” Gal said. “I’m usually pretty good off the tee, and my putting has been great and my short game has always been solid. So, I know to shoot lower scores I need to be hitting more greens and hitting closer. 

“Even today, it could have been better. I did hit a lot of greens, but still had a lot of long putts.”

Gal didn’t have to putt at all on the par-4 16th, though. Following a solid tee shot across the marsh which also runs along the left edge of the fairway, she was left with a wedge from 89 yards to the raised green with the flag tucked behind a large greenside bunker. She couldn’t see the ball go in the hole from her vantage point in the fairway, but her mom saw roll into the cup while watching around the green. 

De Bock came through four groups later and made birdie at the 16th, hitting her approach inside four feet and making her putt for her fourth birdie of the day to take the solo lead momentarily at 4-under. 

She would make her only bogey, though, at the par-3 17th before closing out her round with a par at the last to finish at 3-under along with Gal. 

“I think I jinxed it,” De Bock said about briefly thinking about not having a bogey on her scorecard late in the round.

“I should not have done that,” she added with a smile.  

Round two begins at 7:30 a.m. Thursday. The tournament concludes on Friday with the final round.