Browsing: LPGAs

NAPLES, Fla. — The 2025 season has been a historic one for the LPGA. But that history has also brought a question that must be answered as new commissioner Craig Kessler looks to elevate the tour to new heights.

This season, the LPGA has flexed its depth and parity. Entering this week at the CME Group Tour Championship, there had been 29 unique winners. Until World No. 1 Jeeno Thitikul mounted an improbable Sunday comeback at the Buick LPGA Shanghai last month, there had been zero repeat winners this season. One year after Nelly Korda won seven times, including five in a row, the LPGA experienced the inverse. There were 11 first-time winners. Star amateur Lottie Woad turned pro and immediately won the Women’s Scottish Open. Rookie of the Year winner Miyu Yamashita won the AIG Women’s Open and then joined Thitikul as the only other repeat winner when she captured the Maybank Championship.

Korda, who has yet to win in 2025, will be the first to note that the talent on the LPGA is getting better and better every year. That’s a good thing, especially in the long run. Armed with a transformative new TV deal, Kessler and the LPGA have a vision to capture more eyeballs and reach a broader audience. But can the LPGA do that with depth and parity, or does the tour need one or two stars to dominate and transcend into the larger sports conversation, and take the tour with them?

As the LPGA season reaches its conclusion this week in Naples, the answer is murky at best.

“As a tour and even from a fan perspective, yes, it’s great to have somebody like Nelly that was so dominant last year,” Hall of Famer Lydia Ko said. “Catches a lot of attention, especially with her — in Nelly’s case, being an American player. That catches a lot of different attention. In the case of even if you don’t play golf, you know who Tiger Woods is. Like having that kind of a figure is, yes, very important, but at the same time, just a level of play between the No. 1-ranked player on the CME rankings to 100, I think the talent is not that far different.

“I think as a Tour having better talent and more talent throughout the leaderboard is just as important as having one superstar.”

Golf was Lexi Thompson’s life. She wanted something more

By:

Josh Schrock

Where the question becomes even stickier is when you consider the LPGA’s global reach. The Tour’s Asian swings show how popular it is worldwide. But with most tournaments played in America and a big chunk of television revenue residing in the states, perhaps superstars are needed to elevate the LPGA in America, while depth and parity boost it around the world.

“I think the Tour is the strongest it has ever been,” three-time major champion Minjee Lee said. “I think because our Tour, we play mostly in America, so I do feel like if we have one or two stars on the LPGA maybe then it can help us in a way.”

“We market ourselves to be a very global tour, and I think that’s what we see and that’s what we see, especially having [11] first-time winners this year, bunch last year and the year before,” Ko said. “It is a double-edged sword in that sense that you want the depth and the talent because you just want to see the whole game grow, but at the same time, if I was to market someone it’s much easier to market one person than 30 people.”

Lexi Thompson, who has been one of the Tour’s marquee faces for more than a decade, doesn’t think the LPGA’s growth strategy should be dependent on one or two players lifting a majority of the trophies. There is strength in numbers.

“It’s a global tour,” Thompson told GOLF. “These ladies come from everywhere around the world. It’s not a matter of winning multiple times. That’s great and all, but I think people love to see different winners and different personalities, you know, different ways you get around the golf course.”

Kessler knows that one of his biggest objectives is to create and market stars. The talent on the LPGA is undeniable, but stars don’t just exist inside the ropes. It takes the backing of a tour to lift their profile and make them bigger than golf. High-quality play is important, but so is the ability and willingness to transcend the course. If you want to grab eyeballs you wouldn’t normally get, you have to go where they are. You can’t just expect them to come to you.

“No silver bullets to creating stars, and this is where it takes an ecosystem,” Kessler said. “Yesterday we had our partner meeting, and at the end they graciously asked: What can we do to help? We said two things: Raise your hand if you have ideas or a megaphone that you’re willing to share; and, two, make introductions to those who can also lean in and help.

“There are so many examples we can point to, whether it’s what Nelly did by going to the Met Gala or with Sports Illustrated or Charley [Hull] going to a state banquet in the UK or some of the recent things she’s done on social. I could take you through a through a variety of players and things that they have done to show up in culture, not just inside the ropes. Those things make a difference.”

For Kessler and the LPGA, their job is to find players who have the ability to crack a larger audience — those not typically tuned in to golf — and want to be the faces of the LPGA. It would be great if those players were also the ones consistently at the top of leaderboards, but that’s not a non-negotiable. Kessler has already delivered a few big wins for the LPGA in his short time at the helm, and he is willing to try different things to achieve the end goal, with building stars being one of his top priorities.

“You have the best players, you have the most marketable players, and you have the ones who are actually willing to lean in and do the work,” Kessler said of building stars. “It’s the handful of players at the center of that Venn diagram that we are going to invest our resources against in order to create global superstars and create that player and fan connection.”

Hull, who Kessler specifically mentioned as a top player who is willing to do things away from the golf course, is willing to lean into being one of the faces of the LPGA.

“I’m just being myself,” Hull told GOLF. “I think it’s great that they invited me [to the UK state dinner]. I’ve had a pretty good year, and it was nice. I do think it is a good thing for the women’s game of golf to have people acknowledging it and, yeah, I’m just being myself.”

Hull won the Kroger Queen City Championship this season and had a Sunday run at the AIG Women’s Open come up just short. She is one of, if not the star of the LPGA, and she sees the explosion of talent in women’s golf as the bedrock of what the LPGA is building.

“Before it used to be like the top-10 players could win, and now it’s like the top-30, 40 players have all got a chance of winning because the standard has gone up and we’ve got so much more depth and that’s what we want,” Hull said.

The LPGA would likely benefit from having a dominant player or two breaking through to a larger audience. It certainly wouldn’t hurt. But what everyone, from Kessler to Hull, Korda and Ko on down, wants is not to have to put everything on one player’s shoulders.

“I think just the way that our Tour is now, I think there is just so much and so much storytelling that can be made that we don’t necessarily need to just bank on having this one person,” Ko said.

“So our job is to find the right holistic, balanced set of stories to tell so that our fans get excited week-to-week,” Kessler said when laying out his strategy. “If we are reliant on one person, whether it’s a star or a celebrity, to carry the weight of the Tour on their backs, I think we’ve missed the boat.

“There’s so much magic happening on the LPGA and we have to bring all of it to life.”

As they do, the answer will become clear.

NAPLES, Fla. — The champion of this week’s CME Tour Championship will take home a $4 million check, but that player might be this week’s second winner behind new commissioner Craig Kessler — and the league he now oversees.

Kessler has been on the job for just four months but has already shown he understands where the LPGA needs to grow — and that he’s willing and able to make the necessary moves to push the Tour in that direction. The LPGA already announced a new tournament in partnership with Golf Saudi. The announced the relocation of the Chevron Championship to upgrade the event experience. And on Tuesday, the Tour announced a groundbreaking new partnership with FM, Golf Channel, and Trackman to improve and elevate the television broadcast in 2026. The investment from FM will make it so that every round of every tournament is broadcast live in the United States. The broadcasts will come with 50% more cameras, drone footage and improved shot-tracking data.

When Kessler was announced as commissioner, he outlined “four pillars of success” to help the LPGA grow. The second was “visibility.” Tuesday’s deal made that pillar stronger than ever, and the players understand how important it is to the present and future of their Tour.

“Television partnership is everything really,” three-time major winner Minjee Lee said on Tuesday. “Essentially, we’re entertainers, so if we don’t have TV times, live TV times, or the slots are when a lot of people are watching TV, it’s hard to really build the Tour the way we want to build it. … I think having more exposure as players that’s everything to us, too. It’s really cool to see how Craig has — with his short time being on Tour how he’s trying to elevate our Tour, and see how we go.”

Craig Kessler Q&A: The LPGA’s new commissioner on goals, ‘pillars’ and what success looks like

By:

Dylan Dethier

Lee watches her brother, Min Woo, play on the PGA Tour and DP World Tour. She has seen firsthand how different the two television products are and is hopeful that this partnership will begin to put the women’s golf product on a similar footing with the men’s game.

“I do think they have good TV times, so that’s why I can just turn it on and it’s live,” Lee said of the PGA Tour and DP World Tour broadcasts. “I think that’s kind of an important part of building a better tour. Just having more exposure as players. That’s sort of what we are always working towards.”

Hall of Famer Lydia Ko has seen the LPGA Tour struggle to elevate its product for years. There are a number of reasons why the LPGA hasn’t broken through to a larger sports audience, but visibility and television coverage play major roles in elevating the players and the sport. Kessler’s move is one Ko has been hoping to see for a long time, and one she knows is fitting for the talent on the Tour. Making the Tour visible every week and making it easier to follow with ShotLink data can be a game-changer for women’s golf.

“I think it’s what the players and the Tour deserve,” Ko said. “I do believe this will just grab more attention of some people that just have a hard time tracking things before. I think I’ve been in that position where I don’t play a tournament, and I kind of want to watch or see what happened or see some of the data, and it’s been an aspect that I felt like we could really improve on.

“So to see the growth in that and see how much more coverage we’re going to get domestic and overseas, it’s a very exciting thing. I think there has been a lot of exciting announcements these past couple months. I think Craig has officially been the commissioner since July-ish. In four months, I think we’ve seen a lot of great improvement in things that I feel like we should have been in that position more a long time.”

Added 2025 Evian champion Grace Kim: “I think we need all the exposure that we should be getting. I think sometimes, especially overseas, the times might not match, so being able to have that extra time on the broadcast could definitely boost our views. … To be able to have that connection to get it globally for a longer period of time I think is huge.”

Kessler has a lot on his plate as he looks to strengthen his four pillars — trust, visibility, building a fan base and securing a financial future — and help the LPGA break through on a bigger level. It will take time to bring his vision to reality.

But his first moves are big swings that show Kessler understands the assignment, and the broadcast change sent a clear message that Kessler has both a plan and the vision to lead the LPGA to its desired destination.

“I think the last couple months have been a little bit of the fast-forward pace, and it’s been great to be part of that and to kind of see the growth from that perspective,” Ko said of Kessler’s early run as commissioner. “I think we’re growing as an organization and becoming — and having a much stronger, I guess, foundation to the organization outside of just playing for more money and what kind of directly impacts us day-to-day. I think having those kind of things set is really important for us going forward.

“I’m excited for what’s next. And I truly believe that Craig is going to take our tour to that next step, and I’m excited to be part of that.”

Through the first five days, the LPGA’s week at the Annika achieved the short-term goal.

Buzz. Impressions. Chatter.

The week started with a relatively packed press conference for 18-year-old Kai Trump, the granddaughter of President Donald Trump, who was in the field thanks to a sponsor invite from the Doyle Family, who own Pelican Golf Club. There are two ways to view the Trump invite. She is the 461st-ranked junior golfer in the world and has never teed it up in a USGA event. Given the stakes of the penultimate event on the schedule, Trump is undeserving of a spot in the field. She has LPGA aspirations and will play collegiately at the University of Miami, but it was clear that this week would be a massive step up in competition for her — one that would almost certainly end in high scores and a missed cut. But the point of Trump’s invite was about a different number— her over 8 million social media followers. And if her brief stop at the Pelican delivered the type of attention that can help the LPGA break through to a different audience, isn’t that worth a swing?

2 ways to think about Kai Trump’s controversial LPGA invite

By:

Josh Schrock

Once Trump’s participation was announced, the Annika became the type of conversation-driving event the LPGA needs to figure out a way to recreate on a regular basis without a celebrity in the field. That was the idea.

WNBA star Caitlin Clark’s return appearance at Wednesday’s pro-am delivered even more eyeballs, both in person and on social media.

Per data obtained by Golfweek’s Beth Ann Nichols, Clark’s pro-am appearance generated 2,693 posts on X, which led to 241,704 engagements and 18,325,849 impressions. The tournament’s Instagram account saw a 591 percent increase in views year-over-year. On site, there were crowds several rows deep trying to get a view of the WNBA superstar alongside Nelly Korda. The crowds weren’t as big as they were for Clark’s 2024 pro-am appearance, but the gravitational pull of her star power was still evident as she smiled and laughed her way through nine holes while working on her improving game.

“I think it just shows how powerful supporting women can truly be,” Clark said during a walk-and-talk with Golf Channel during the pro-am. “I’ve always been a big advocate of that, of supporting women’s sports. And always been a big fan of whether it’s golf or soccer, volleyball or whatever it is.”

“It’s amazing that she’s into women’s golf and wants to come out here and put a spotlight on us, and on the event and on this tour,” Schmelzel told Golf Channel on Wednesday. “I think it’s a great day for women’s sports overall.”

That bled into Trump’s opening round, where she unsurprisingly struggled en route to a 13-over-par 83 that wasn’t televised. Trump shot a second-round 75 on Friday, part of which was televised, and finished dead last by six shots. At the same time on Friday, Korda was making an electric move up the leaderboard that had LeBron James tweeting. All of the online conversations and impressions are a win. The LPGA should take swings to try to increase its popularity.

Kai Trump’s opening 83 in LPGA debut serves as powerful reminder

By:

Michael Bamberger

But as the weekend at the Annika started with a packed leaderboard and Clark and Trump in the background, bigger questions loomed: What was the LPGA’s plan to retain the new eyeballs they acquired from Clark and Trump? The impressions and social media views are nice. But new commissioner Craig Kessler and the LPGA have to have a strategy to capitalize on them by getting them to return to watch Korda and the tour’s other stars, and not just parachute in for a few days every year at the Annika or wherever they create a celebrity boost. Clark and Trump gave the LPGA a bigger spotlight, but neither is the antidote for long-term, breakthrough growth the tour seeks. What Kessler and the LPGA need to do is develop a long-term strategy to increase the popularity and visibility of the sport, from improved television windows to getting its biggest stars to play a bigger role in promoting and pushing the tour forward.

From a micro perspective, the Trump invitation was a chance worth taking. But were the eyeballs she delivered going to stick around past the two days in which she shot 158? No, and especially not without a concrete plan to convince the non-LPGA audience to stick around. That type of plan takes time, trial and error to perfect.

That’s the long game for Kessler and the LPGA. It’s why they inked a partnership deal with Golf Saudi and why they are reportedly moving the site of the Chevron Championship to a more accessible course.

The week at the Annika, which is still going on with a star-studded leaderboard, didn’t end when Trump exited Friday after an LPGA reality check. But the buzz, eyeballs and chatter delivered by Clark and Trump quickly dissipated, leaving only the bigger questions the LPGA has to solve — ones Clark and Trump can’t answer.

The LPGA’s Chevron Championship, the season’s first major on the calendar, is reportedly changing venues yet again.

Golfweek’s Beth Ann Nichols reported the tournament, which was held in Southern California from 1972 until 2022, will move from The Club at Carlton Woods in The Woodlands, Texas, to Houston’s Memorial Park Golf Course in 2026.

Memorial Park is also the host of the PGA Tour’s Texas Children’s Houston Open, which is now played annually in late March, just a month before the Chevron Championship last season.

The municipal course previously hosted the Houston Open in the 50s and 60s and then returned as host in 2020 after undergoing a $34 million renovation by Tom Doak. It currently ranks 88th in GOLF’s Top 100 Courses You Can Play in the U.S. for 2024-25 and 16th overall in the state of Texas.

Ever since returning to the spring portion of the PGA Tour schedule in 2024, players have raved about the overseeded conditions at Memorial Park. This year’s event was won by Min Woo Lee, who held on to beat World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler and Gary Woodland.

‘Thought I was going to drown:’ Chevron winner’s celebration takes scary turn

By:

Josh Schrock

The Chevron’s move was controversial in 2022 after the tournament’s entire 5-year existence was at the Dinah Shore Tournament Course at Mission Hills Country Club. That move also came with a date change from the week before the Masters to avoid conflict with the newly established Augusta National Women’s Amateur.

The Chevron Corporation agreed to be the title sponsor of the event in 2021, with the agreement that the tournament would move to the Houston area in 2023. As a part of their sponsorship, the purse was increased by 60% in 2022, up to $5 million.

There were reportedly still two years left on The Club at Carlton Woods’ contract.

The 2026 LPGA schedule is expected to be announced next week at the CME Group Tour Championship.

“We’re in active discussions finalizing next season’s schedule and are excited about what’s ahead. There are still some moving parts, but we feel really good about the progress we’ve made. We look forward to sharing the 2026 schedule next week,” Ricki Lasky, the LPGA’s chief tour business and operations officer, told GOLF in a statement.

What may need to be figured out at Memorial Park is a location for the traditional champion’s jump into “Poppie’s Pond” after the final hole. The tradition was carried over from Mission Hills to Carlton Woods after the club dredged out the lake between the 18th and 9th holes, built a dock and installed netting to protect from aligators.

Memorial Park’s 18th hole doesn’t feature any water.

The Annika driven by Gainbridge has an impressive commitment list that includes Nelly Korda, Lexi Thompson and Charley Hull. That field for the LPGA’s penultimate event added another big name Tuesday when Kai Trump, the 18-year-old granddaughter of President Donald Trump, announced she would be making her LPGA debut at Pelican Golf Club in Gainbridge, thanks to a sponsor’s invite.

“It has been a dream of mine to compete at the professional level, and I’d like to thank the Pelican Golf Club for the invitation,” said Trump, who has verbally committed to play college golf at the University of Miami. “I’m looking forward to teeing it up and competing with the best players in the world at one of the most premier venues on tour.”

Trump is ranked No. 979 in the Universal Golf Rankings’ junior girls list. Trump’s biggest tournament to date was the Junior Invitational at Sage Valley, where she finished last in a field of 24 golfers, shooting 52 over with rounds of 89-79-83-89. However, in July, Trump finished third in a South Florida PGA Srixon Medalist Tour event. Trump also has a huge social media following, which includes 1.3 million subscribers on YouTube and 3.5 million on TikTok. According to recruiting website On3, Trump has a Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) valuation of $1.2 million.

Kai Trump won’t be the only big-name non-LPGA player teeing it up at Pelican. WNBA star Caitlin Clark will once again tee it up in the pro-am on Wednesday. Clark, who was the WNBA’s Rookie of the Year in 2024, played in last year’s pro-am alongside Nelly Korda and Annika Sorenstam, which drew a massive crowd.

“It was a great to see how relaxed she was,” Korda said of playing with Clark. “Obviously with the media attention she has gotten probably in the past year and a half, two years, you can see how she’s comfortable playing in front of a larger crowd. And she was just really enjoying it. You can tell. Like she’s definitely very talented. She was picking the ball really clean. She was losing a couple shots to the right, but I asked her how many times a week she plays, and I think with the amount of obligations she has, she probably gets to the golf course once a week. So, for just playing once a week, she was playing really well.”

The 120-player field at the Annika is the final LPGA event before the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship in Naples, Fla.

Oct 26, 2025, 06:38 AM ET

GOYANG, South Korea — Australia beat the United States Team to win LPGA’s International Crown tournament on Sunday, clinching the title after Minjee Lee and Hannah Green took both of their singles matches, with each winning, 2 and 1, over Angel Yin and Yealimi Noh, respectively.

The foursomes match between Australians Stephanie Kyriacou and Grace Kim and Americans Lilia Vu and Lauren Coughlin finished in a tie, but was inconsequential when Green secured victory at the 17th hole in the second singles match at the New Korea Country Club.

It’s the first win for Australia at the match-play tournament, which eluded them in 2023 when current No. 1 ranked Jeeno Thitikul and Thailand beat them in the final at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco.

The World team finished in third place after Charley Hull and Lydia Ko both had impressive victories in their singles matches against Japan to take an unassailable lead in the three match tie.

Hull led out for the World team with a 4 and 3 win over Ayaka Furue and Ko sealed the third place finish with a 3 and 2 win over Rio Takeda.

Mao Saigo and Miyu Yamashita beat Brooke Henderson and Wei-Ling Hsu 4 and 3 in the foursomes to narrow the deficit for the Japanese.

Semifinal heartache for World team Earlier Sunday, Kyriacou and Kim beat Wei-Ling and Ko of the World team on the 20th hole to clinch a place in the final for the Aussies after the singles had finished at one win apiece.

Hull had edged past Hannah Green 2 and 1 to put the World team ahead after the first singles match, before Minjee Lee rallied in her tie against Canada’s Henderson to win 1-up and level the match.

The top-seeded United States team had a more straightforward path to the final as Yin had a 2 and 1 win over Japan’s Takeda, before Noh sealed the Americans spot with hole wins at the 13th, 15th and 16th for a comfortable 4 and 2 victory over Yamashita.

Furue and Saigo took a consolation victory for Japan and ended the United States perfect record this week when they had a 1-up win of Lilia Vu and Lauren Coughlin in the foursomes.

Under the tournament format, seven countries and a “rest of the world” team compete in two pools. The teams and their players were determined by the women’s world ranking.

The top two countries from each pool advanced Sunday’s semifinals and final that consisted of one foursomes (alternate shot) and two singles matches.

Last week Sei Young Kim won the BMW Ladies Championship, also in South Korea. The LPGA’s Asian swing continues in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia next week and concludes in Shiga, Japan from Nov. 6-9.

Oct 24, 2025, 05:49 AM ET

GOYANG, South Korea — The United States stayed perfect at the LPGA’s International Crown tournament on Friday, winning its third and fourth fourball matches and ending No. 1-ranked Jeeno Thitikul’s unbeaten record in the team competition.

Americans Yealimi Noh and Angel Yin beat Thitikul and Pajaree Anannarukarn 5 and 4, handing Thitikul her first loss after six consecutive match wins in the event. Lilia Vu and Lauren Coughlin later won the second fourball match for the Americans, beating Chanettee Wannasaen and Jasmine Suwannapura 3 and 2 at the New Korea Country Club.

On Thursday, the top-seeded Americans beat China twice. The U.S. — the only unbeaten team in the tournament — leads Pool A with four points and has clinched a place in Sunday’s semifinals.

All eight teams will play a third set of fourball matches on Saturday.

Australia and China split their Pool A fourball matches Friday. Minjee Lee and Stephanie Kyriacou beat Zhang Weiwei and Liu Yan 2 and 1 and China’s Yin Ruoning and Ruixin Liu defeated Australians Hannah Green and Grace Kim 1-up.

In Pool B, Japan and Sweden also split Friday’s matches. Miyu Yamashita and Rio Takeda beat Madelene Sagstrom and Ingrid Lindblad 3 and 2 but Maja Stark and Linn Grant gave Sweden a win, defeating Mao Saigo and Ayaka Furue 3 and 2.

The World team picked up 1 1-2 points against South Korea and leads Pool B with three points from two wins and two ties.

England’s Charley Hull sunk a 12-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole to give her and World teammate New Zealander Lydia Ko a 1-up win over Hyo Joo Kim and Hye-Jin Choi. Jin Young Ko and Haeran Ryu tied their match with Wei-Ling Hsu of Taiwan and Canada’s Brooke Henderson.

“I managed to whack it, but I don’t want to whack it too hard because I don’t want to have a fiddler coming back,” Hull said. “So just thought hole it and save the stress.”

Under the tournament format, seven countries and a “rest of the world” team compete in two pools. The teams and their players were determined by the women’s world ranking.

The top two countries from each pool advance to Sunday’s semifinals and final that consists of one foursomes (alternate shot) and two singles matches.

Last week Sei Young Kim won the BMW Ladies Championship, also in South Korea. The LPGA’s Asian swing continues in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia next week and concludes in Shiga, Japan from Nov. 6-9.

Caitlin Clark is set to make her return.

Clark, for the second straight year, has committed to play in the pro-am for the LPGA’s The Annika driven by Gainbridge at Pelican Golf Club in Belleair, Florida. The pro-am will take place Nov. 12 and is open to the public.

Last year, Clark teed it up alongside Nelly Korda and Annika Sorenstam. She also took part in a women’s leadership summit the afternoon before at the club.

“I had an amazing time at The Annika last November and participating in the pro-am alongside Nelly Korda and Annika Sorenstam, two of the best in the game,†said Clark. “I’m honored to be an ambassador for a company in Gainbridge that is so committed to elevating women’s sports. I can’t wait to return to Tampa in November to play in the pro-am with the best women golfers in the world.â€

Clark, the 2024 WNBA Rookie of the Year, only played 13 games for the Indiana Fever this season as she dealt with multiple lower-body injuries. She last played July 15.

“It was an honor to play in the pro-am with Caitlin last year. The crowds were amazing, and we are excited for her return to The Annika in November,†said Sorenstam. “She added such a great dynamic to our event, and her passion for golf and competitiveness were fun to witness firsthand. I look forward to having her back and continuing to introduce the great game of golf to the next generation.â€

HONOLULU — Akie Iwai fought through gusting wind Friday at Hoakalei Country Club to take the third-round lead in the LOTTE Championship, with eight players a stroke back and Nelly Korda two behind.

Iwai, the 23-year-old Japanese player who won the Portland Classic in August for her first LPGA Tour title, shot a 1-under 71 in the difficult afternoon conditions to get to 13-under 203.

“No change. Just keep going,†Iwai said. “Have smile and have fun.â€

Second-round leader Youmin Hwang followed her career-best 62 on Thursday with a 75 to drop into a tie for second with Minami Katsu (66), Hyo Joo Kim (66), Megan Khang (67), Peiyun Chien (68), Brooke Matthews (69), Pornanong Phatlum (69) and Jessica Porvasnik (72).

“I’m sure there will be a lot of wind tomorrow, too,†Katsu said. “Hopefully, just try to be patient.â€

The second-ranked Korda birdied the 18th for a 69 to get to 11 under.

Coming off a seven-victory season, Korda hasn’t won this year and has lost her No. 1 ranking to Jeeno Thitikul. The tour has had a different winner in all 24 of its official tournaments this year.

“For me the most important thing is giving 100% to every shot.†Korda said. “That’s what I’m going to do tomorrow. You never know. Golf is a crazy sport. Sports are crazy.â€

Nasa Hataoka also was 11 under after a 71. Defending champion A Lim Kim shot a 66 to get to 10 under.

Iwai steadied herself after a bogey on the par-3 12th, making a sensational up-and-down on No. 13 for the first of six straight pars. She missed a chance to double the lead on the par-5 18th, blasting out of a bunker to 6 feet and failing to get the birdie try to fall.

“I forget what happened today and get ready for tomorrow,†Iwai said.

On the par-4 13th, Iwai avoided a second straight bogey after hitting into a massive fairway bunker and leaving her approach 56 yards short in the right rough. She hit a wedge to 3 feet to start the par run, and has hit 46 of 54 greens in regulation in three days,

“I would say I’m a shot-maker,†Iwai said.

Iwai shot a 64 on Wednesday to take the first-round lead, then had a 68 on Thursday to fall three strokes behind Hwang, the Korean LPGA star playing on a sponsor invitation.

Iwai’s twin sister Chisato, also has won this year as a tour rookie, taking the Mayakoba event in May. On Friday, Chisato was 9 under after a 71.

After the event, the LPGA heads to Asia for tournaments five straight weeks in Shanghai, South Korea, Malaysia and Japan.

HONOLULU — Youmin Hwang played in the final group off the first tee Thursday in the second round of the Lotte Championship. She’ll do it again Friday after shooting a 10-under 62, the best round in the four years the tournament has been played at Hoakalei Country Club.

Hwang opened eagle-birdie, dropped a stroke on the fourth and had eight more birdies to get to 15-under 129 and open a three-stroke lead with two rounds left. Playing on a sponsor invitation, the 22-year-old South Korean player has two victories on the Korean LPGA.

“First of all, I broke my life-best score,†Hwang said. “At the same time, I broke the course record, so I feel very good.â€

Hwang matched the tournament record of 62 set by Lizette Salas in the 2013 final round and Cristie Kerr in the 2017 third round, both at Ko Olina Golf Course.

“I feel very different about the course, first, especially the grass type,†Hwang said. “It’s very different to Korea and play in Korea LPGA.â€

First-round leader Akie Iwai of Japan followed her opening 64 with a 68 in the afternoon session to join American Jessica Porvasnik (65) at 12 under.

“Feel like little difference, specific on the green,†Iwai said. “Getting hard to see the line.â€

Porvasnik played in the first group of the day of the first tee. She’s a 30-year-old LPGA Tour rookie after finishing fourth last year in the Epson Tour standings.

“I just hit a lot of fairways, a lot of greens, gave myself a lot of great looks, and made a few of those,†said Porvasnik, a former Ohio State player.

Iwai played in a group with twin sister Chisato, who was 8 under after a 66. The 23-year-old Japanese sisters have each won this year as tour rookies. Chisato broke through at Mayakoba in Mexico in May, and Akie won the Portland Classic in August.

Nasa Hataoka of Japan and Gabriela Ruffels of Australia each shot 69 to get to 10 under.

Second-ranked Nelly Korda was 8 under after a 67 in the morning.

“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.â€

Coming off a seven-victory season, Korda hasn’t won this year and has lost her No. 1 ranking to Jeeno Thitikul. The tour has had a different winner in all 24 of its official tournaments this year.

Charley Hull, playing alongside Korda, was 7 under after a 68. Hull won the Kroger Queen City Championship three weeks ago in Ohio after Thitikul four-putted the final hole.

“Just played pretty solid golf,†Henderson said. “I found the greens kind of a bit slow, so kind of hard to get used to the pace because you just feel like you have to bash the putts.â€

Brooke Henderson, the 2018 and 2019 winner at Ko Olina, was 4 under after her second 70.

Defending champion A Lim Kim was 4 under after a 74.

After the event, the LPGA heads to Asia for tournaments five straight weeks in Shanghai, South Korea, Malaysia and Japan.