Suzann Pettersen set a course record by shooting a nine-under 63 in the first round of the KEB HanaBank Championship yesterday.
The Norwegian finished a shot clear of Sweden’s Karin Sjodin at the Ocean Course in Incheon, with five players tied for third, two shots back. Ai Miyazato of Japan, Azahara Munoz of Spain and the South Korean trio of Ryu So-yeon, Moon Hyun-hee and Kim Ha-neul all carded rounds of 66.
In perfect conditions at the course 40km (25 miles) west of Seoul, Pettersen sank five birdies in the first six holes on the Jack Nicklaus-designed course to make a brilliant start to the three-day event.
Photo: EPA
“Being three rounds, you want to get off to a hot start and I can’t complain with today’s round,” Pettersen said.
“I found the feel of the greens this morning and worked hard to feel the speed yesterday, and made some great putts and great shots. I’m really trying to read what’s out there; some pins are par pins and some pins you attack,” she added.
Defending champion and world No. 1 Yani Tseng had a 68, while No. 2 Stacy Lewis finished at par with a 72.
COURSE RECORD
Pettersen also set a course record last week at the Sime Derby LPGA Malaysia, only to falter in the final two rounds.
“I feel like I have some low rounds in me now. It is nice when the way you feel equals the score you put on the scorecard,” Pettersen said.
It was an excellent day for Scandinavia with Sweden’s Sjodin pushing Pettersen all the way.
“I felt like I was hitting the ball really solid,” Sjodin said. “The birdies were long putts. I had three close ones and missed all three.”
Sjodin, ranked 75 in the world, has three South Koreans on her heels.
Playing in front of an enthusiastic home crowd, the locals are expected to perform well though Park Inbee, ranked fifth in the world and top of the money list this season, ended tied in 24th with a two-under 70.
“Seeing all the Korean players on tour in their home environment and how they blossom here. It’s really great to see,” Sjodin said.
HOME CONTINGENT
Moon is one of the home contingent tied in third place and was delighted with her showing.
“The conditions are perfect and there is almost no wind at all,” she said.
“In Korea, we have only one LPGA tournament a year and all players want to participate. My scores have not been so good lately. I wanted to boost my confidence and I think I did that today,” she added.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier