Jin Young Ko shoots 67 to take one-shot lead in the LPGA’S season-ending event./
Round of 67 shot in chilly conditions puts her up by one
Top-ranked Jin Young Ko took the lead into the weekend in the LPGA Tour’s CME Group Tour Championship, putting herself in position to win the season money title in only four events.
Ko shot a 5-under 67 on Friday in chilly and breezy conditions at Tiburon Golf Club to take a one-stroke lead over defending champion Sei Young Kim and 2018 winner Lexi Thompson in the season-ending event.
“Before when I play in KLPGA it was really cold, so I hate cold weather to play golf, but right now I love it,” said Ko, who spent most of the season in South Korea.
The $1.1 million winner’s prize, down from $1.5 million last year, is the richest in women’s golf. Ko is 13th on the money list with $567,925. Inbee Park is the leader with $1,365,138, and Kim second with $1,207,438. Ko also is trying to hold off No. 2 Kim in the world ranking.
Coming off a secondplace tie last week in Houston in the U.S. Women’s Open, Ko birdied three of four par-5 holes in a bogey-free round to reach 9 under.
Kim had a 69. She has two victories this season.
Thompson, the firstround leader after a 65, had two late birdies in a 71.
Nelly Korda (66) was three strokes back at 6 under with Cydney Clanton (68), Austin Ernst (69), Georgia Hall (69), Megan Khang (71) and Caroline Masson (71).
Lydia Ko was 5 under, following a 74 with a bogey-free 65.
LPGA schedule: Commissioner Mike Whan no longer measures success by making it to the end of year disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. A schedule for 2021 he released Friday suggests the LPGA Tour came out stronger than ever. The LPGA Tour has added two tournaments and didn’t lose any of the ones that had to cancel because of the shutdown. Whan left little wiggle room for more interruptions with a schedule that starts Jan. 21 in Florida and ends 10 months later with consecutive events in Florida. The first seven tournaments are all in
the United States, with the Asia swing moving to the spring. The 34 official events offer a record $76.45 million in prize money.
PNC Championship: Padraig Harrington and Tiger Woods turned pro about the same time and have played in some 170 tournaments around the world together. That gave Harrington enough experience to speak to what he saw at the PNC Championship. “This is the first tournament I’ve ever played in that Tiger Woods is playing in that he’s not the star of the show,” Harrington said Friday. “He should know that himself. He ain’t the star of the show this week, and that’s very much amongst the players. Everybody is stopping to watch Charlie.” That would be Charlie Woods, the 11-year-old son of the 15-time major champion. It helped that a video on social media last year showed Charlie’s smooth swing on the range at a junior tournament. Plus, he’s the son of Tiger Woods. “It’s amazing the buzz it’s created,” Harrington said. “That sums up the PNC Championship. There’s so many nice stories.”