Ayaka Furue off to hot start in LPGA opener
Ayaka Furue of Japan did not see any signs of a fast start coming until she opened her 2024 LPGA season on Thursday with a red-hot performance.
Furue made seven birdies in a round 7-under 65, giving her a two-shot lead in the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions at Lake Nona.
Furue, 23, who captured the Ladies Scottish Open in 2022 for her first LPGA title, is making her second start at the LPGA’s season opener for winners each of the last two years. She broke from a pack late in her round with birdies on the closing two holes at Lake Nona, the Tom Fazio design that hosted the first Solheim Cup in 1990.
An eight-time winner on the Japan LPGA and that circuit’s 2021 Player of the Year, Furue was steady throughout to start her third LPGA season, finishing without a bogey on her card.
She finished two shots clear of Sweden’s Maja Stark, who tied for second at this tournament last year; and Mexico’s Gaby Lopez, a past champion of the TOC.
Lopez started off on the back nine and birdied six of her first eight holes. Her December was not spent practicing, but instead on a three-week honeymoon that took her around the globe, including experiences on safari in South Africa and up close to the pyramids of Egypt.
She had few expectations other than to start slowly, but when she stuffed a 7-iron close at her fourth hole, the par-3 13th, and converted the short putt, she was 4 under through four holes. That, she said, shook out all the “spiderwebs.”
Californian Danielle Kang, another past champion of the event, opened with 68, as did Ally Ewing, a three-time winner on the LPGA who is seeking her first victory since 2022.
This event features 35 LPGA winners over 72 holes of stroke play alongside a celebrity field of 50 competitors competing for a separate purse using a Modified Stableford points system.
Furue’s 65 was the low round posted by a pro since the tournament shifted to Lake Nona in 2021. Furue cut a diminutive figure standing alongside Kyle Rudolph, a 6-foot-6 former NFL tight end, but she was mighty in her play.