ORLANDO, Fla. — After the primary spherical of the season-opening Event of Champions, Japan’s Nasa Hataoka shot a 6-under 66 to guide LPGA Participant of the Yr Gino Titikul, Chaneti Wanasen, Lottie Ward and Lynn Grant by one stroke.
Hataoka performed the again 9 at Lake Nona Golf & Nation at 4 below, selecting up the place he left off on the finish of final season. On the Japan Traditional in November, she gained in a playoff in opposition to Yuna Araki, incomes her first LPGA victory in virtually three years.
Titikul is coming off not solely his finest season, however top-of-the-line seasons in LGPA historical past.
Though she gained her third Tour Championship of the 12 months in November, completed second on the Evian Championship and fourth on the Ladies’s PGA Championship, the Thai star completed with the bottom scoring common within the tour’s 75-year historical past.
Titicle had six birdies and one bogey on Thursday, placing him again on the leaderboard in a match open to LPGA winners from the previous two seasons. Wannasen had seven birdies in his spherical of 67, Grant birdied his ultimate two holes to tie him at 5 below, and Ward reached 6 below however fell again with a bogey on the par-4 ultimate gap.
Nelly Korda was joined by Amy Yang, and Lynn Grant additionally returned the blow.
The spotlight for Korda, who completed second finally 12 months’s Event of Champions, got here on the 406-yard par-4 seventh. His strategy from the center of the green bounced off the inexperienced, rolled in direction of the outlet, hit the flagstick and bounced off, incomes him a tap-in birdie. Korda ended up reaching 6 below par, however hit just a few late bogeys to complete the spherical with a 68.
Defending champion Ah Lim Kim was in the identical three-under group as Lydia Ko and Ingrid Lindblad.
