Sei Younger Kim leads LA Championship by 1 shot

LOS ANGELES — Sei Younger Kim shot her second straight 7-under 65 on Friday at El Caballero to take a one-stroke lead within the JM Eagle LA Championship, the ultimate occasion earlier than the primary girls’s main of the season.

Enjoying within the morning wave on the hilly, tree-lined course, Kim birdied two of the primary three holes then made a giant transfer on the again 9 with 5 birdies in a seven-hole stretch.

“I simply wish to maintain transferring ahead the subsequent two days,” the 33-year-old South Korean participant mentioned. “I attempt to transfer ahead no matter my place.”

First-round chief Chizzy Iwai of Japan was tied for second with Ina Yoon of South Korea. Iwai adopted her opening 63 with a 68, making three birdies in a four-hole stretch on the again 9 late within the afternoon.

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She can be trying to assault the course.

“I like aggressive golf,” Iwai mentioned. “I feel tomorrow I must be aggressive.”

Yoon had a 64. She performed her opening 9 holes, the again 9 at El Caballero, in 7-under 29 and added a birdie on the par-5 seventh.

“I by no means shot 29 for 9 holes in my life. It was unbelievable,” Yoon mentioned. “The again 9 was little bummer.”

The Chevron Championship is subsequent week in Houston, with the Dallas area-based Kim enthusiastic about her robust play main into the most important.

“I am very a lot wanting ahead to subsequent week,” Kim mentioned. “However I’ve two extra days, so I simply concentrate on this weekend.”

Kim received the BMW Girls Championship final yr in South Korea for the final of her 13 LPGA Tour titles. She received the 2020 KPMG Girls’s PGA Championship for her lone main title.

Iwai received final yr in Mexico for her first LPGA Tour victory. Yoon is winless on the tour.

Jin Hee Im (68), Melanie Inexperienced (68) and Jessica Porvasnik (69) have been 5 strokes again at 9 beneath.

Hannah Inexperienced, the 2023 and 2024 winner at Wilshire Nation Membership, was 8 beneath after a 69. The Australian has three worldwide wins this yr: the HSBC Girls’s World Championship on the LPGA Tour together with the Girls’s Australian Open and Australian WPGA.

The event is being performed at El Caballero for the second straight yr due to course renovations at Wilshire.

Defending champion Ingrid Lindblad was 3 beneath after a 72.

Lauren Coughlin, the winner two weeks in the past at Shadow Creek, adopted her opening 66 with a 76 to fall to 2 beneath. She had six bogeys Friday.

Amateurs Asterisk Talley and Aphrodite Deng have been 4 beneath. The 17-year-old Talley, taking part in her first occasion since shedding the lead on the again 9 within the Augusta Nationwide Girls’s Novice, had her second straight 70. Deng, from Canada, shot 72.

Hyo Joo Kim withdrew earlier than the spherical after opening with a 68. She leads the tour this yr with two victories, successful in consecutive weeks within the Bay Space and Arizona.

Minjee Lee and Hye-Jin Choi additionally withdrew earlier than the spherical.