Patience leaves Parsons atop Women's Porter Cup leaderboard

That Mary Parsons made three birdies in her back nine at Niagara Falls Country Club on Wednesday is a testament to patience. She was trying to get the ball close and it fell.

“My main focus was to hit greens and to stay patient putting,” said Parsons, the first-round leader at the Women’s Porter Cup.

Parsons had a 3-under 69 that gave her a one-shot lead on a field full of college talent. Parsons is a sophomore at Indiana.

There has been plenty of good karma so far this week. She aced the par-3 16th in the practice round and had a tap-in for birdie on Wednesday. Parsons opened her round with a birdie, too.

With the unofficial start of the amateur-golf summer this week, Parsons has some good memories to pull from. Last month, her Indiana team beat the odds and advanced to the national championship for the first time since 2007. Indiana was the last at-large team to earn a bid into regionals and advanced as the No. 14 seed. Parsons called the whole thing “quite the experience,” especially once the team got to Blessings Golf Club in Fayetteville, Ark., for the NCAA finals.

“With many good players to learn from, my main takeaway was creating a strategy and playing holes to my own strengths,” she said. “The Blessings was a course where a gameplan was needed otherwise trouble could quickly add to the score.”

Parsons is originally from Delta, British Columbia. Another Canadian is right behind her on the leaderboard – Fresno State’s Brigitte Thibault. Both Thibault and Queensland native Isabelle Taylor had 2-under 70 on Wednesday.

Thibault played the Augusta National Women’s Amateur earlier this spring.

Another notable ANWA participant, Anna Redding, is a few more shots down the board. She is tied for ninth with Emily Zhu after a 1-over 73. Redding finished third at last year’s event.

Defending champion Zoe Beth Brake is tied for 11th with 74.