Narin An of South Korea shot a flawless 8-under-par 64 to set the tempo on the CME Group Tour Championship on Thursday in Naples, Fla.
A $4 million first prize is on the road on the LPGA’s season finale at Tiburon Golf Membership, the place 60 gamers certified primarily based on the season-long Race to the CME Globe.
An has by no means gained on the LPGA Tour, however she completed twenty ninth within the factors race due to 4 top-10 finishes. Now she is in nice place to land a large victory.
Angel Yin is alone in second, one stroke behind An, and Marina Alex and Allisen Corpuz are tied for third at 6 underneath. Lydia Ko of New Zealand is in placing distance of the lead after capturing a 5-under 67, a part of a six-way tie for fifth.
An, 28, hit all 14 fairways in regulation and wanted simply 23 putts to get across the course. She carded 4 birdies on every 9 with no bogey.
Although a $4 million paycheck is engaging, she mentioned her perspective this week is {that a} event is a event.
“I feel that mindset is sweet for make the main target throughout my play,” An mentioned.
Yin, 26, was 2 over by 4 holes earlier than turning issues round. She bought into purple figures with three birdies earlier than the top of the entrance 9, and she or he poured in 4 birdies between Nos. 10 and 14.
Then, on the par-5 seventeenth, she punctuated her day with an eagle 3.
“Began out just a little bit rocky simply because I used to be making an attempt to regulate to the golf course,” the Los Angeles native mentioned. “Golf course is taking part in fairly troublesome with the early winds this morning, which I actually like and I get pleasure from, as a result of it is our final event and it is an enormous purse, larger than a significant. Does not have a title of a significant, however I feel it deserves each little bit of issue it brings to closing the season out.”
Alex, 34, additionally made a bounce by eagling the seventeenth, however not the best way she deliberate it. After a second shot she was sad with, she chipped in on her third.
“(On 17 she was) similar to classically within the worst place I may have been, left and barely lengthy of that individual pin,” the two-time winner from New Jersey mentioned. “… I believed I hit a pleasant chip. I used to be anticipating it to be, I do not know, 10 to fifteen toes, which was what I used to be going to be proud of making an attempt to transform, and hit the pin and went in.
“Simply you want some good breaks. Sometimes that form of stuff occurs.”
Former U.S. Girls’s Open champ Corpuz had a bogey-free day, whereas Ko carded six birdies and one bogey.
Ko is making an attempt to shine off maybe the perfect 12 months of her profession after she already collected an Olympic gold medal and the Girls’s Open title. She additionally certified for the LPGA Corridor of Fame and was inducted final month.
“I feel that is the kind of golf course the place it is not like one fights into such a golf course,” Ko mentioned. “We have seen numerous of winners right here, from longer hitters to people who hit it actually straight and et cetera.
“… I feel it is going to be thrilling. It is at all times an thrilling end right here. Hopefully, I will have the ability to hit and play my justifiable share of excellent pictures and be in competition and end the season formally on a excessive.”
World No. 1 Nelly Korda, who completed No. 1 within the factors race, shot a pedestrian even-par 72 and is tied for forty fourth. Lexi Thompson, who’s wrapping up her ultimate full-time season on tour, is tied for fiftieth at 1-over 73.
–Area Degree Media