LEE6 TAKES LEAD; KORDA HAS GOOD START
On a course she didn’t expect, Nelly Korda delivered the round she needed with a 6-under 66 that left her two shots out of the lead Thursday and gave her a good start toward winning LPGA Tour player of the year.
The $1.5 million prize for winning the CME Group Tour Championship is in range, too.
Former U.S. Women’s Open champion Jeongeun Lee6 didn’t make a birdie on rain-softened Tiburon Golf Club in Naples, Fla., until the sixth hole, and then she didn’t stop. She finished with
three straight birdies for an 8under 64.
Lee6 had a one-shot lead over four players, including past Tiburon winner Sei Young Kim. Scoring was so low that 18 players were at 67 or better.
The 60 players who qualified for the season finale have the same chance to win the $1.5 million prize, the largest in women’s golf, regardless of their standing in the Race to CME Globe.
The more compelling race
is the points-based award for LPGA player of the year, which is down to Korda and Jin Young Ko, each with four victories. Korda has a 10point lead, meaning Ko would have to be runner-up to have a chance.
The South Korean star has some catching up to do after a 69 left her in a tie for 25th, especially with Korda looking as sharp as she has for so much of the year.
“I gave myself some good
looks inside 10 feet,” Korda said. “Two ‘oopsies’ with three-putts, but I think I hit the majority of the greens and gave myself some really good looks. Hopefully, I can carry it into the next three days.”
Hannah Green of Australia, who already picked up $1 million this week for winning the Aon Risk-Reward Challenge bonus program, took a step toward even more cash by joining Korda in the group at 66, along with U.S. Women’s Open champion Yuka Saso.
Ko and Korda played in the final group, based on Race to CME Globe standings, and the South Korean star got off to a slow start. Her wedge to a back pin on the par-5 opening hole was too strong and went over the back, she putted up the slope and badly missed a 4-foot par putt. She rallied with two birdies on her last three holes.
Muñoz has career-best 60
Sebastian Muñoz saw the tough weather conditions on the way to the RSM Classic and figured all he could do was keep his head down and make birdies. He wound up with a 10-under 60 to shatter his career round by six shots at St. Simons Island, Ga.
Scoring was so low at Sea Island that all that got Muñoz was a one-shot lead. The Colombian, who won his first PGA Tour event just over a year ago, birdied his final hole at Seaside.
He led by one stroke over Sea Island member Zach Johnson at Seaside, while three players were one shot behind to par. Past champion Mackenzie Hughes, Chez Reavie and Scott Stallings each had a 9-under 63 on the Plantation course.
Scoring was so ideal that 33 players shot 66 or lower on the two courses, located just off the Atlantic Ocean, and all but 21 players in the field of 156 broke par.
Elsewhere
Rory McIlroy is back playing his best golf again, even if it has come too late to win another Race to Dubai title. Fresh off his 20th career victory on the PGA Tour, the former No. 1 opened birdieeagle and shot 7-under 65 for a two-stroke lead after the first round at DP World Tour Championship at Dubai, Inited Arab Emirates, the season-ending event on the European Tour.
McIlroy wasn’t one of the six players who arrived at Jumeirah Golf Estates still with a chance of finishing the season as European No. 1. Collin Morikawa, the leader of the Race to Dubai, is looking good for that title after opening with a 68.