Lee Mi-hyang birdied three of her four opening holes en route to a six-under 66 and a share of the first-round lead at the rain-hit Lotte Championship in Oahu, Hawaii, on Wednesday.
She and American Paula Creamer topped a crowded LPGA Tour leaderboard that included five golfers tied for second at five-under.
Lee birdied three of the four par-fives and finished with seven birdies and one bogey in a first round that was delayed for 44 minutes because of heavy rain at the Ko Olina Golf Club. Play was suspended because of darkness with five players still on the course.
Photo: AFP
Lee came into the tournament having missed the past two cuts.
“I [had] good rest and my body is much better than before,” Lee said. “I met with my coach and tried to fix my problem. I have a lot more confidence than before. I played really good today.”
Creamer had an earlier tee time, emerging from a pack to also shoot a six-under. It was her best round of the year and she credits a change in her putting style for her success.
“I played solid. I putted really well,” she said. “I switched back to conventional-style putting. I’ve been left-hand-low for the last three years. I hit the ball really well at the ANA [Inspiration] and Kia [Classic]. I just couldn’t make any putts. We talked about how many times I won conventional and how many times have I won left-hand-low, and the difference was astronomical.”
Americans Beth Allen and Lizette Sales, South Koreans Jang Su-yeon and Ji Eun-hee, and Canadian Alena Sharp were all tied for second at five-under.
Ji made just one bogey in her round, while Jang shot a bogey-free score. Jang finished fifth in Oahu last year.
“It’s good to come back to a place I know,” Jang said. “Although I only played 18 holes this year in practice, as I was playing the golf course memories are coming back to me and I have a lot of good memories of the golf course.”
Chien Pei-yun was in a big group of players on two-under, while fellow Taiwanese Min Lee was another shot further back.
Hsu Wei-ling was tied for 86th place on one-over, while fellow Taiwanese Cheng Ssu-chia was tied for 106th place a shot further back.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
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