Jeongeun Lee6 of South Korea opened with a bogey-free, 8-under 64 to take a one-stroke lead in the first round of the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship on Thursday at Tiburon Golf Club in Naples, Fla.
The field of 60 was determined via the LPGA Tour’s season-long points race. Now the points are reset and all 60 players have a chance to win the $1.5 million first prize and the Race to the CME Globe crown.
Five of Lee6’s eight birdies came on the back nine, including each of her final three holes. She drained a lengthy putt for birdie at the par-3 16th hole.
“My feel is getting better, so my goal is to win once this year, but unfortunate just one tournament left,” Lee6 said. “Yeah, I’m going to try my best.”
Four women are close behind following rounds of 7-under 65: South Korea’s Sei Young Kim, France’s Celine Boutier, Jennifer Kupcho and Mina Harigae.
Kim, ranked No. 4 in the world, carded nine birdies and two bogeys. She said she was able to correct some parts of her game at last week’s Pelican Women’s Championship, also played on a bermudagrass course in Florida, to prep her for the season finale.
“I learn from couple mistake last week because I had a couple miss shots,” Kim said. “So I recognize how to fix it … it was good test last week, Pelican Golf Course.”
Boutier, Kupcho and Harigae all finished their rounds without a single bogey. Harigae had the biggest highlight, a chip-in eagle at the par-5 17th. Harigae and Kupcho are in search of their first career wins on the tour.
Eight players shot 6-under 66, including world No. 1 Nelly Korda, who won a week ago for her fourth title of the season. She finished Thursday with eight birdies and two bogeys.
“I hit majority of the greens and I didn’t really make any mistakes,” Korda said. “Two loose shots that I kind of had too much curve on them and two three-putts. But I definitely made a good bit of my putts out there as well.”
–Field Level Media
