Northwestern rising senior Kaitlin Park was welcomed to the LPGA by a course that was not willing to surrender birdies.

In Grand Rapids, Michigan at the Meijer LPGA Classic, Park started off cold, bogeying the par three 4th and par four 5th, finding herself at +2 after the first third of her round was in the books.  But after nearly reaching the par five 8th in two, she had a simple pitch on to the green and made no mistakes with it.

WGOLF: Park chips in for EAGLE on No. 8 to get back even for the day! pic.twitter.com/lULDN3SoXr

— NU Sports Live (@NU_SportsLIVE) July 23, 2015

Unfortunately, Park couldn’t keep that momentum going.

She made the turn at even par, but would make three bogeys and six pars on the back nine to finish the day with a +3 74, putting her in a tie for 128th.

Park has her work cut out for her on Friday if she wants to make it to the weekend.  The cutline right now sits at even par, where a host of players are tied for 60th.  The good news is that there are some low numbers available out in Grand Rapids.  Three golfers are in at -7 today, including Aussie Katherine Kirk who fired 7 birdies and an eagle en route to her 64.

Just making it into the field as an amateur is impressive for the Park.  The experience of playing in a professional event will undoubtedly be valuable experience, something the Wildcats will need if they want to better their top-ten performance at the NCAA Championships from last spring.

We’ll be tracking Park’s second round as the tries to climb up the leaderboard and make the cut.