Mollymook’s Kelsey Bennett has the Round 1 lead on the Ladies European Tour as Grace Kim led a four-strong Aussie assault on the leaderboard at the LPGA Tour’s Meijer LPGA Classic.

A 5-under par round of 67 on day one of the Hulencourt Women’s Open in Belgium earned Bennett a one-stroke lead from defending champion Helen Briem and India’s Avani Prashanth.

Boasting three top-10 finishes already in her rookie season on the LET, the 25-year-old had a strong run of birdies, including multiple back-to-back streaks on both the front and back nine.

All told, there were nine birdies for Bennett in Round 1 who took the positive vibes from her first look at the golf course into a strong first round.

“I’ve just played so many golf courses now. So honestly, I think it just depends what sets up to your eyes,” Bennett said post-round.

“Some courses you look at and you just think, How am I going to get around here?

“This course in the practice rounds I’ve thought, This suits my game really well.

“You just take that positive thinking and roll with it.”

There were positive vibes, too, for a handful of Aussies on day one of the Meijer LPGA Classic.

Denied in a playoff 12 months ago after giving up a five-stroke lead, Grace Kim showed no signs of scar tissue with a brilliant 7-under 65 to sit just one stroke back of Korea’s Mi Hyang Lee (64).

The Australian flag is flying prominently on the leaderboard after Round 1 with the resurgent Karis Davidson (66) tied for third, Minjee Lee (67) and Gabi Ruffels (67) in a share of sixth and rookie Cassie Porter (68) tied for 12th.

Without regular caddie Drew Ernst whose wife had a baby last Saturday, Kim combined well with ring-in John Pond and used her own history at Blythefield Country Club to give herself a chance at redemption.

“Now that it’s my third time here, I know what it should do. All I need to do is try to just putt, not overthink it as much,” said Kim, who had back-to-back chip-ins for eagle on 10 and birdie on 11 in the middle of her round.

“I don’t have my caddie this week so I’m really having to trust my own reads.

“I guess it worked out well, and it’s nice to know that I can putt very well by myself, too.”

Making a return this year after playing just eight LPGA events in 2024, Davidson’s 66 is the low round of her LPGA career, coming on the back of a tie for 16th and tie for 26th in her past two starts.

“It’s really cool. Really proud of myself for sort of sticking in there,” said Davidson.

“I’ve really been working on my swing plane. It was a little bit flat so the numbers are sometimes inconsistent because you sort of close the face or open it.

“Been working on that and it’s helped with consistency with numbers.

“With putting, just a bit more visualisation into the hole rather than focusing on good strokes every time.

“I would say that definitely helped today.”

A week out from the third major championship of the year, signs were good too for Minjee Lee.

The two-time major winner went out in 4-under after starting on the back nine and would love to generate momentum leading into a major week.

“I took a week off after US Open and I was practising a little bit,” said Lee after her round of 67.

“It’s nice to just have a couple events that you can feed off momentum-wise.

“I’m trying to do my very best here as well as next week; it’s a major.

“It would be nice to get a good result here first.”

Photo: Tristan Jones/LET