Ryu, Shon share LPGA lead with sizzling 64s

CHICAGO: Sixth-ranked Ryu So Yeon -

round lead with American Kelly Shon at the LPGA Meijer Classic.

- ing of the season was a share of fourth at Los Angeles, seeks her sixth LPGA title in the Grand Rapids, Michigan, event and her first since winning last June’s Northwest Arkansas Championship, which lifted her to world number one.

“This season, I’m not really fully

week it’s going to start playing really well and hopefully I can win this tournament,” Ryu said.

After starting with back-to-back birdies, Ryu ran off three in a row at the par-three sixth, par-four seventh

another set of back-to-back birdies

It was her low round of the season and her lowest since a 61 during her Arkansas triumph last year.

“I’ve been working really hard with my coach and we’ve been really focused on speed control on

paid off today.”

South Korean-born Shon, seeking her first LPGA crown, has missed the cut in six of her 11 prior tour starts this season, with

Los Angeles.

“I’m doing so many things so well that it’s so hard to believe I’m getting what I’m getting,” Shon said of her season’s struggles. “Tough as it is, I’ve been still keeping my head down, just working as hard as I could doing the same things, and so yeah, to be honest, I have been waiting for a round like this.”

Shon, who began on the back nine, birdied the par-three 12th before taking her lone bogey at 13, which she answered with a birdie at 16.

Shon began the front side, her second nine, with a birdie at the

then closed the round with birdies sandwiched around an eagle at the eighth to match Ryu for the lead.

Australia’s Su Oh, Sweden’s

Herbin and American Lizette Salas shared third on 66 with South African Lee-Anne Pace and Germans Caroline Masson and Sophia Popov another stroke adrift.

Canada’s Brooke Henderson, the defending champion, was in a pack on 69.