Leona Maguire in touch as Jasmine Suwannapura sets pace at Walmart NW Arkansas Championship

Jasmine Suwannapura of Thailand fired a bogey-free, eight-under-par 63 to establish the first-round lead at the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship.

Suwannapura birdied four of her final six holes at Pinnacle Country Club to finish one stroke ahead of China's Liqi Zeng, Spain's Carlota Ciganda, South Africa's Ashleigh Buhai and Mexico's Maria Fassi at the 54-hole event.

Cavan woman Leona Maguire is six shots behind Suwannapura after a two-under 69.

Starting on 10, Maguire hit seven consecutive pars before dropping a shot on 17.

However, her round caught fire coming in and she birdied the last two holes to stay in touch.

Suwannapura, a two-time LPGA Tour champion, knows that her work is far from over.

"I know a lot of girls out here is going to go low. I hope I can go low the next two days," she said.

The 31-year-old hit 17 of 18 greens in regulation in the opening round.

"I think it's starting from last week I think everything coming, getting better with my irons, having more confidence," Suwannapura said.

Leaderboard

Zeng - a rookie ranked No. 438 in the world - started her day on the back nine and rolled in five straight birdies from 14 to propel her toward her lowest round of the season.

Zeng and Ciganda were bogey-free, while Buhai tallied eight birdies and a bogey one week after taking the first-round lead at the Kroger Queen City Championship with a 65.

Buhai faded to a T14 finish there and hopes to improve on that this week.

"The middle of the year was tough for me injury-wise," Buhai said. "Struggled with my back, then broke my toe. But started to turn the corner. It's nice to just see that work that I've put in, that I've been able to finally put in, because I wasn't able to for a while, is finally starting to pay off a