Hye-Jin Choi’s wild day fares better than Korda’s 17 pars at LPGA

BELLEAIR, Fla. (AP) — Hye-Jin Choi opened with two bogeys, made up ground with a 15-foot eagle putt late and finished with a 3-under 67 Friday that gave her a three-way share of the lead at The Annika and another chance to win for the first time in 127 tries on the LPGA Tour.

It was far more effective than the bogey-free round of Nelly Korda, the No. 1 player who could only laugh at her clean card because it was cleaner than she would have preferred — 15 straight pars, one birdie, two closing pars for a 69.

That left Korda four shots behind going into the weekend at Pelican Golf Club, where a victory would make the 28-year-old American eligible for the LPGA Hall of Fame.

“I had a lot of chances,” said Korda, competing for the first time in two months. “But you can just tell that from yesterday morning to today afternoon with the wind, that’s what the defense of this golf course is. It’s as fast as Bermuda as I’ve putted on throughout my career.”

It wasn’t a problem for Solheim Cup star Carlota Ciganda, who birdied her last four holes for a 63 to join Choi and Lindy Duncan (66) atop the leaderboard at 12-under 128.

The Japanese duo of Mao Saigo (65) and Minami Katsu (69) were two shots behind.

Choi has been an LPGA member for five years and it has been a curious chase for that first LPGA victory, particularly since she was 17 when she had a late lead in the 2017 U.S. Women’s Open and wound up as a runner-up.

She also had two good chances at winning during the recent Asia swing, where she was runner-up in Shanghai and South Korea.

Choi was playing in the group with Korda the opening two rounds, which she believes has tested her enough to calm her nerves on the weekend. She wasn’t rattled by the bogey-bogey start, or the bogey on the par-5 14th, her fifth hole of the round.

She pieced together enough birdies to regain some momentum, then hit an approach that got a nice kick around the green and rolled out to just under 15 feet for eagle on the par-5 seventh.

“I have two rounds left, but I have recently played in a champion group on the tournament before, so I have that experience and I’m going just try my best and concentrate on my game like two rounds,” Choi said.

Scoring was low enough in the opening round that 1-under 139 made the cut. This is the final regular-season event of the year, and the top 60 in the Race to CME Globe advance to the finale next week in Naples, where the winner gets $2 million.

Julia Lopez Ramirez of Spain, who defeated Yealimi Noh in a crucial singles match in her Solheim Cup debut, was among those at 9-under 131. That was important for the Spaniard, who came into the week at No. 66 in the Race to the CME Globe.

Duncan, the 35-year-old Floridian, has yet to win on the LPGA Tour and this was the first time she had at least a share of the lead through 36 holes. She went 2-1 in her Solheim Cup debut, where she was the oldest first-timer for the Americans since Nancy Scranton was 39 in 2000.

This is her sixth consecutive tournament, and fifth week in a row on a trip that has taken her from Shanghai to South Korea to Malaysia to Japan to the Tampa Bay area. She looked no worse from the wear of traveling and time zones.

“The week has gone by really fast, which is sometimes a good thing,” Duncan said. “Because if you’re playing a lot and you get some momentum going, that’s kind of a nice way to play. So it’s just been kind of rolling with it.”

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Doug Ferguson, The Associated Press