NAPLES, Fla. — Narin An dealt with the windy situations with a scorching 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 area is a $4 million prize to the winner, the biggest single-day payoff in girls’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 subsequent three days at Tiburon Golf Membership if she desires to finish her 12 months 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. However it has made the duty that a lot more durable.
The whole lot felt simple 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.
“As we speak my putt actually good,” An stated. “The pace was good and the form was good. I simply attempt to focus a little bit 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 the majority gamers can simply attain in two.
Former U.S. Girls’s Open champion Allisen Corpuz and Marina Alex have 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 — almost half the sector — shot within the 60s.
“It’s a great head begin for the large ol’ prize we get on the finish of the week,” Yin stated.
Whoever wins this week is assured of breaking the 17-year-old LPGA file for many cash earned in season. The file 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 successful the Tour Championship in 2007.
The opening spherical adopted a giant night time of awards for the LPGA Tour, the place Korda formally picked up her first award as participant of the 12 months, which she clinched earlier this month .
Ko was acknowledged for her large 12 months, 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 simple,” Ko stated. “I set a purpose of taking pictures 3 below immediately, and any individual shot 8 below. I used to be like, ‘OK, perhaps I must make a number 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 attempting 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 12 months 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 saved up her kind. And she will be able to see the end line, which is interesting.
“I everyone seems to be taking a look at that $4 million price ticket,” Valenzuela stated. “I attempt to not look an excessive amount of on the outcome. 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 power, my very own dedication.
“It’s the final week of the 12 months. It’s form of the bonus week. It doesn’t matter what, everyone seems to be having a paycheck.”
