Ariya Jutanugarn yesterday shot a six-under-par 66 to take a one-stroke lead after the first round of the Buick LPGA Shanghai tournament, with Taiwan’s Hsu Wei-ling three strokes back.
The Thai player had six birdies in a bogey-free round, including three straight on Nos. 4, 5 and 6.
“I always have so much fun when I play in Asia,” Jutanugarm said, adding that her key was “just not to expect anything. Just go out have fun and enjoy everything.”
Kim Sei-young and Danielle Kang (both 67) were one shot back, with six other players — Paula Creamer, Lydia Ko, Ryann O’Toole, Minjee Lee, Wenbo Liu and Lizette Salas — only two shots off the lead.
Hsu was in a share of 10th with seven others after a doble-bogey offset her five birdies.
Kang credited her improved play to new coach Butch Harmon.
“We just kind of simplify the game a lot,” she said. “Just trying to calm it down and get back to how I used to play. Just more feel golf. Thinking less mechanics and going with the flow.”
“Today’s round went very smooth,” Kang said. “Coming off very good momentum after last week and I’ve been hitting the ball really well, playing great. I’ve just been trusting my game and just keep giving myself birdie chances. They kept rolling in.”
Taiwan’s Chien Pei-yun was well off the pace after a five-over-par opening roun left her in a share of 73rd.
The tournament is the second of five being played in Taiwan, South Korea, Japan and China in the LPGA’s annual Asian swing.
Additional reporting by staff writer
CJ CUP
Staff writer
Chez Reavie yesterday held a one-shot lead at the CJ Cup on Jeju Island, South Korea, with a first-round 68 putting him ahead of Danny Willett and Kim Si-woo, who both shot three-under-par 69s.
Taiwan’s Pan Cheng-tsung shot a four-over-par 76 to be in a share of 56th.
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
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
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier