(Photo credit score: Albert Cesare/The Enquirer / USA TODAY NETWORK)
Nasa Hataoka of Japan and Ruoning Yin of China shot 9-under-par 63 to forge a tie for the first-round lead on the CME Group Tour Championship on Thursday in Naples, Fla.
Hataoka was the primary to the touch 9 below and Yin matched her on the finish of the afternoon, her remaining birdie coming on the par-5 seventeenth gap at Tiburon Golf Club. Both gamers carded 9 birdies and no bogeys to kick off the profitable season finale event.
The high 60 gamers within the Race to the CME Globe standings certified for the season-ending occasion, which options the very best profitable payout in girls’s golf. The champion will take house a $2 million first prize.
Hataoka, 24, is in a terrific place to finish her winless drought that dates again to April 2022. She rolled in 5 birdies on the entrance 9 and 4 extra on the again.
Yin, the 21-year-old who gained the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship in June, adopted go well with with a three-birdie stretch at Nos. 6-8 serving to her to the front-nine 31. She narrowly missed a tenth birdie from lengthy vary on the par-4 18th.
Yin — ranked No. 2 on the planet — and France’s Celine Boutier are the one gamers mathematically alive to win the LPGA Player of the Year award.
Minjee Lee of Australia is third with a bogey-free 8-under 64, and Anna Nordqvist of Sweden (65) carded eight birdies and one bogeys to put fourth at 7 below after one spherical.
Alison Lee, Thailand’s Patty Tavatanakit, England’s Georgia Hall, Hye-Jin Choi of South Korea and Yu Liu of China are tied for fifth at 6-under 66. Of that quintet, all however Liu went bogey-free on Thursday.
Jennifer Kupcho, Atthaya Thitikul of Thailand and Xiyu Lin of China shot 5-under 67 to kind a tie for tenth. Nelly Korda was half of a big tie at 4-under 68 that additionally featured Leona Maguire of Ireland, Yuka Saso of Japan and Charley Hull of England.
–Field Level Media