Dame Laura Davies shares Meijer lead after best round of year

Dame Laura Davies rolled back the years to share the lead after round one of the Meijer LPGA Classic in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Davies has made just £8,268 in prize money in 2016, with her best finish being tied for 54th at May's Kingsmill Championship, and stands 275th in the world rankings and 151st on the yearly Race to the CME Globe.

She has not won an LPGA event since 2001's Wegmans Rochester International and has had only two top-10 finishes since 2011 and no top-three finish since 2007.

But an opening 65 at Blythefield Country Club, her best round of the year and only her fourth under 70, saw her tied with four other players including defending champion Lexi Thompson.

Spain's Carlota Ciganda, Sei Young Kim of South Korea and South African Paula Reto were the other players at six under par.

Davies was three under after eight holes and though she dropped a shot just before the turn, four more birdies on the back nine left her in a strong position.

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Thompson started at the 10th and played the back nine entirely in pars before an eagle at the par-five first kick-started a stunning front nine which featured three straight birdies from the third and another at the eighth.

Reto opened with a bogey at the 10th but bounced back with seven birdies, including four in a row from the 12th. Kim had two bogeys but finished with her seventh and eighth birdies back to back and Ciganda shot a blemish-free round.

Davies' English compatriot Jodi Ewart Shadoff was in a group of seven players just one shot off the lead as the course offered up good scoring conditions. World No 1 Lydia Ko was one of seven players on four under.