HONOLULU — A Lim Kim had a hole-in-one on the par-3 ninth and birdied the ultimate two holes for a 5-under 67 and a one-stroke lead over Nataliya Guseva on Friday within the Lotte Championship.
“Calculate quantity after which selected line after which hit it,” Kim mentioned concerning the ace. “I feel 99% fortunate.”
Kim rebounded from a bogey on the par-4 sixteenth with the birdies on the par-4 seventeenth and par-5 18th. She had a 14-under 202 complete at breezy Hoakalei Nation Membership with a spherical left within the occasion that began Wednesday.
“Each event I feel similar — give attention to my line after which hit it,” Kim mentioned. “That is it. Any consequence, I do not care.”
Kim is No. 65 within the Race to CME Globe, and solely has two tournaments left to crack the highest 60 and earn a spot within the season finale that pays $4 million to the winner. The 29-year-old South Korean participant received the U.S. Girls’s Open in December 2020 for her lone LPGA Tour title.
Guseva, the 21-year-old participant making an attempt to turn out to be the primary Russian winner in LPGA Tour historical past, shot 68. She bogeyed the seventeenth for the third day in a row.
“I take pleasure in enjoying on the market,” Guseva mentioned. “Nonetheless a whole lot of wind, however not as a lot as yesterday. Tremendous excited for tomorrow.”
Ryann O’Toole was third at 11 underneath after a 69. She wasn’t happy with the tempo of play.
“Very sluggish. Felt prefer it was turtle sluggish,” O’Toole mentioned.
Jin Younger Ko shot 67 to hitch Auston Kim (69) and Yuri Yoshida (71) at 10 underneath.
