NAPLES, Fla. — Narin An dealt with the windy situations with a sizzling putter on Thursday, making 4 straight birdies across the flip and ending with an 8-under 64 for a one-shot lead within the CME Group Tour Championship.
At stake for the 60-player discipline is a $4 million prize to the winner, the most important single-day payoff in ladies’s golf.
Nelly Korda already has received greater than that in her sterling season of seven wins. Now she faces an eight-shot deficit over the following three days at Tiburon Golf Membership if she desires to finish her yr in becoming vogue.
Korda, coming off a victory final week, couldn’t make amends for her three bogeys and needed to accept an even-par 72. She has come from behind in 4 of her victories, and nonetheless has 54 holes forward of her. Nevertheless it has made the duty that a lot harder.
Every part felt straightforward for An, a 28-year-old from South Korea who has by no means received on the LPGA and has by no means cracked the highest 10 in any of the 16 majors she has performed.
“At present my putt actually good,” An mentioned. “The pace was good and the form was good. I simply attempt to focus a bit of bit extra.”
She had a one-shot lead over Angel Yin, who shot 30 on the again 9, together with an eagle on the par-5 seventeenth gap that almost all gamers can simply attain in two.
Former U.S. Girls’s Open champion Allisen Corpuz and Marina Alex had been at 66, with Lydia Ko main the group at 67.
Regardless of the wind so typical alongside the Gulf Coast of Florida, 27 gamers — practically half the sphere — shot within the 60s.
“It’s a great head begin for the large ol’ prize we get on the finish of the week,” Yin mentioned.
Whoever wins this week is assured of breaking the 17-year-old LPGA report for many cash earned in season. The report was set by Lorena Ochoa in 2007 at $4,364,994, again when the full prize cash was about half of what it’s now. Ochoa earned $1 million for profitable the Tour Championship in 2007.
The opening spherical adopted a giant evening of awards for the LPGA Tour, the place Korda formally picked up her first award as participant of the yr, which she clinched earlier this month .
Ko was acknowledged for her huge yr, highlighted by an Olympic gold medal that put her into the LPGA Corridor of Fame. She regained loads of focus for the opening spherical on a course the place she received simply two years in the past.
“The course isn’t straightforward,” Ko mentioned. “I set a purpose of capturing 3 underneath in the present day, and any individual shot 8 underneath. I used to be like, ‘OK, possibly I must make a couple of extra birdies.’ It’s a course that may get away from you as a lot as you’ll be able to shoot some low scores, so I’m simply making an attempt to stay to my recreation plan and go from there.”
Additionally within the group at 67 was Albane Valenzuela of Switzerland, already celebrating a giant yr together with her debut within the Solheim Cup and her first look within the Tour Championship.
She made a late run at her first LPGA title final week at Pelican Golf Membership, and stored up her type. And she will be able to see the end line, which is interesting.
“I everyone seems to be that $4 million price ticket,” Valenzuela mentioned. “I strive to not look an excessive amount of on the consequence. I really feel like up to now I’ve all the time been caught on outcomes, and in the end all I can do is management my very own spherical, my very own vitality, my very own dedication.
“It’s the final week of the yr. It’s sort of the bonus week. It doesn’t matter what, everyone seems to be having a paycheck.”
