Los Angeles (United States) (AFP) \u2013 South Korean Hwang You-min fired a career-best 10-under-par 62 to surge into a three-stroke lead on Thursday after 36 holes in the LPGA Lotte Championship in Hawaii.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hwang, a 22-year-old playing on a sponsor’s invitation, posted the best round in the tournament since it moved to Hoakalei Country Club four years ago, building a 15-under-par total of 129.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Playing in the final group off the first tee, she opened eagle-birdie and after a bogey at the fourth grabbed eight more birdies the rest of the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That included four in her last five holes as she powered past overnight leader Akie Iwai of Japan and American Jessica Porvasnik, who were tied for second on 132.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Iwai carded a four-under 68 and Porvasnik shot 65. They were two strokes in front of Australian Gabriela Ruffels and Japan’s Nasa Hataoka, who both shot 69 for 134.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“First of all I broke my life-best score,” Hwang said. “So at the same time I broke the course record, so I feel very good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Tee to green, especially my iron shot was perfect. I just felt right for every club I play for the second shot as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“My putting I thought was perfect.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hwang is teeing it up in the event for the third time, but said she’s feeling a little more pressure as she prepares to tackle LPGA Tour qualifying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I feel nervous, at the same time very excited,” she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Iwai said afternoon conditions were different than those she faced in carding a Wednesday morning 64. She opened with three straight birdies and after a bogey at the fourth had just two more birdies coming in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I felt like a little difference, specifically on the greens,” she said. “(It was) getting hard to see the line,” she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Once again Iwai played alongside her twin sister, Chisato, who carded a 66 for a share of eighth on eight-under in a group that also included world number two Nelly Korda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Korda, the highest-ranked player in the field, posted a five-under 67.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I would say the main difference between today and yesterday was just the putts dropped,” Korda said. “It was a little gustier out there today versus yesterday, so it was fun to play in, kind of show my creative side.”<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Los Angeles (United States) (AFP) \u2013 South Korean Hwang You-min fired a career-best 10-under-par 62 to surge into a three-stroke lead on Thursday after 36 holes in the LPGA Lotte Championship in Hawaii. Hwang, a 22-year-old playing on a sponsor’s invitation, posted the best round in the tournament since it moved to Hoakalei Country Club […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":10519,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10518"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10518\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}