Lauren Clark Shoots 65 to Lead Atlantic Beach Classic After Wind-Shortened Round One

Lauren Clark during Round 1 of the Atlantic Beach Classic (Photo:  Isaiah Bell/Epson Tour)

ATLANTIC BEACH, Fla. — The 2026 Epson Tour season opened Thursday at Atlantic Beach Country Club with near-ideal morning conditions that gave way to stiff coastal winds by mid-afternoon — a shift that separated the field as quickly as the slim fairways and glassy greens already were.

Rookie Lauren Clark was in the clubhouse before the wind arrived. The 22-year-old University of Kansas product fired a clean 6-under 65, bogey-free, with six birdies and a 4-under back nine to stake out a two-shot lead over the suspended field. Round 1 was halted due to darkness with several players still on the course, and will resume Friday morning at 7:30 a.m.

“Welcome to the Epson Tour — it’s such a cool thing,” Clark said. “I tried to stay patient with no real expectations of leading; I just wanted to post the best score possible. I’ll probably lose a little sleep tonight from the nerves, but I felt comfortable with how I attacked the course today.”

Clark navigated Atlantic Beach Country Club with the kind of wedge control the course demands. She converted all four par-5s and credited a wind shift from practice rounds for helping on shorter approach shots. It was a composed debut for an Epson Tour first-year who arrived largely under the radar.

“The wind switched from our practice rounds, which actually helped on some of the shorter approaches where I was less confident,” she said. “I felt really good with my wedges today and solid off the tee.”

Foocharoen tracking before darkness fell.

At 4-under through 15 holes when play was suspended, Keera Foocharoen was the closest pursuer — and for a stretch Thursday afternoon, she was the best player on the property.

The Virginia Tech alumna went out in 5-under 30 on the par-35 front nine, the low nine of the day. Six birdies, no bogeys through her first 10 holes. On a course where the greens are glassy and the fairways are shaved tight enough to putt from 10 yards out, that kind of scoring isn’t a product of luck — it means she was hitting the right spots, controlling her distances, and rolling in putts on surfaces that punish anything short or off-line. She played Atlantic Beach like she had a map of every break, finding the correct sides of fairways, attacking pin positions she could access, and leaving herself below the hole consistently enough to keep the putter hot.

The only blemish came on her 11th hole, her first bogey of the round, which cooled things slightly. But she steadied from there and stood at 4-under with three holes still to play when darkness brought play to a halt. She resumes Friday morning with three holes left — sitting two shots off Clark and in real position to apply immediate pressure before the second round even begins.

Foocharoen joined the Epson Tour in 2023 and has one career top-10 to her name. If Thursday’s front nine is any indication, Atlantic Beach may be where that number starts to move.

Six share third. One made history on the 15th.

Six players finished at 3-under 68 — Hira Naveed, Rachel Kuehn, Jessica Porvasnik, Bianca Pagdanganan, Isabella Fierro, and Natasha Andrea Oon — and each got there a different way.

Naveed provided the round’s most memorable moment, making a hole-in-one on the par-3 15th. The Australian, an Epson Tour veteran since 2020 with eight career top-10s, added three more birdies on the day and scrambled through three bogeys to sign for a 34-34. She was characteristically direct about what the ace meant — beyond the shot itself.

“I hope my wallet’s not going to be empty by the end of this tournament,” she said, “but I’m happy to buy drinks for my friends, of course. That’s just a fun way to kind of start the year.”

On the round overall: “This is a tough track with some real teeth to it. I did my homework in practice rounds, focused on positioning, and it paid off today. I scrambled well, made key putts for birdies, and that ace was pretty cool.”

Rachel Kuehn, in her second Epson Tour season, pieced together a 35-33 with five birdies and two bogeys. The Wake Forest product — a two-time ACC Women’s Golfer of the Year — did most of her damage in bursts, running back-to-back birdies on 13 and 14, then again on 17 and 18. She was honest that the ball-striking wasn’t spotless, but the putter more than covered for it.

“I putted really nicely on my first nine, which was the back nine,” Kuehn said. “It wasn’t particularly straight off the tee, but I hit some good recovery shots to give myself some looks, and it was kind of nice. The hole felt like a basketball hoop on the front nine. Just kind of one of those days, and I’ll take it. I have some work to do for tomorrow to hit it a little bit better, but definitely really happy with today.”

Jessica Porvasnik, one of the more experienced players in the field, got to 3-under with a different blueprint: an eagle on the par-5 eighth anchored a card that featured just one bogey. Porvasnik, who has 10 career Epson Tour top-10s and a stint on the LPGA, has been at this long enough to know how to play position golf on a course that punishes ambition. Her 33-35 — with the eagle as the engine — was a clinic in knowing when to attack and when to back off.

Bianca Pagdanganan and Isabella Fierro rounded out the T3 group at 68, Pagdanganan with a balanced 34-34 and Fierro at 33-35.

The course played precisely as the setup intended — fast, tight, and unforgiving.

Atlantic Beach Country Club’s fairways are cut tight enough that players were routinely putting from 10 yards short of the green, coaxed off the short stuff by surfaces that punish any ball that runs through. Oon, returning to professional competition after an extended absence, picked up on the caliber of the conditions right away.

“It’s so clearly cut, and the fairway is so thin as well,” she said. “People putt off the green, you know, like 10 yards off the green — nobody sees that. You putt a little bit quick and it’s off the rails. It’s tough.”

Oon started on the 10th hole and felt the weight of the comeback immediately. She had a recent start in Indonesia where she never found her footing, and the opening tee shot Thursday carried those same anxieties. Then she made birdie on 10.

“That birdie on 10 just kind of set the pace — ‘Hey, you’re getting there, you’re getting there,'” she said. “I got really comfortable. My caddie was just kind of, ‘Hit here, hit here.’ So it was really fun.”

She finished at 68, three under, with a 35-33 scorecard that got stronger as the round went on. “I was on the brink of like, is this going to happen or not?” she said. “Then I was like, 2023 Natasha worked her ass off for that status. I think she deserves to live it out and have fun with it.”

At 2-under, eight players are one shot off the lead group.

Cynthia Lu, Laura Wearn, Liqi Zeng, Maddie Szeryk-DiBello, Annabelle Pancake-Webb, and Kaitlyn Papp Budde all finished the day at 69, keeping the leaderboard compressed. Two more players — Savannah Grewal and Carla Bernat Escuder — still have holes to complete when play resumes, and could factor into that group depending on how they finish.

The separation in scores from 1-under down through even par is thin. Seventeen players finished at 70, and another seven at 71. On a course this demanding, the cut line Friday is going to be a grind for a wide swath of the field.

By the time Jennifer Elliott reached the back nine, Atlantic Beach had its teeth out.

Elliott started on the back and went sideways early — hitting greens wasn’t the issue, but hitting them in the right spots was, and she couldn’t convert the up-and-downs when she didn’t. Then the wind picked up.

“It definitely picked up, I’d say, maybe seven holes in,” she said. “I personally found the back nine a little harder, so it was not a great start on that nine.”

The adjustment Elliott made was methodical: tighter lines off the tee, smaller targets into the greens, better misses. On the front nine, the hole felt more forgiving and she cashed two long putts for par saves and added a birdie. She finished at 75, but the round had more fight in it than the scorecard shows.

“Mentally I just tried to stay positive all day,” she said. “It’s tough out there. Really tight, and on really small greens. Once I could figure out the wind a little better and just plan a little better, it definitely helped out a lot.”

It was Elliott’s first appearance at Atlantic Beach and her first competitive round since Q-School Stage 3 in December. The rust was real at the start; so was the steadiness late.

The cut line will come after 36 holes Friday, with 60 players and ties advancing.

The purse stands at $250,000, with $37,500 going to the winner. Race for the Card points — 500 for first — are on the table from the jump, and the early leaderboard reflects how open this tournament remains.

With play resuming at 7:30 a.m., Clark will defend a two-shot cushion over however many players finish near Foocharoen’s pace. The projected cut is likely to fall around even par once all 120 players have wrapped their rounds.

The Atlantic Beach Classic isn’t glamorous by LPGA standards, but it’s real golf — tight and wind-swept and coastal, with players grinding through conditions most of the outside world won’t notice. Oon said it best: “It’s got beachy vibes and I’m like, ‘Yeah, surf’s up.'”

That’s round one. Eighteen holes down, thirty-six to go on the Road to the LPGA.

Round 1 Leaderboard — Top 10

*Foocharoen’s round was suspended due to darkness through 15 holes. She resumes Friday at 7:30 a.m.

Par: 71 | Yardage: 6,300 | Purse: $250,000