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NAPLES, Fla. — Alison Lee birdied 4 of her final 5 holes Friday to increase a sizzling streak that stretches from Saudi Arabia to South Korea to Florida. Her 8-under 64 gave her a share of the lead with Nasa Hataoka within the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship.
Hataoka atoned for lacking a brief par putt by closing with a pair of birdies, ending with a 25-footer on the final gap for a 67 in a wide-open chase for the $2 million prize.
Lee had 5 birdies in seven holes at first, after which had a robust ending kick that included a wedge to a foot on the fifteenth and a 12-foot birdie putt on the 18th.
The 28-year-old Californian has by no means gained in her 9 years on the LPGA Tour, however nobody introduced as a lot momentum. In her previous three tournaments worldwide, she has runner-up finishes within the BMW Women Championship in South Korea and The Annika final week in Florida. She additionally gained an Aramco Group Collection occasion on the Women European Tour.
Lee now’s 46-under par in her previous 10 rounds.
“I really feel just like the final month, every part is falling into place,” Lee stated.
Lee and Hataoka have been at 14-under 128, remarkably low scoring for Tiburon Golf Membership however to be anticipated given the 4 inches of rain that drenched the course on the eve of the match. The greens have been tender and rolled nicely given solely 60 gamers are within the subject.
Eight gamers have been at 10 below or decrease going into the weekend.
Girls’s PGA champion Ruoning Yin of China had a 66 and was a part of the group 1 shot behind that included Minjee Lee (67) and Amy Yang (63). Xiyu Lin, who like Lee is making an attempt to win for the primary time on the LPGA Tour, had a 66 and was one other shot behind.
“Higher late than by no means,” Lee stated with a smile.
The highest 60 gamers from the Race to CME Globe qualify for the Tour Championship, after which it is a four-day shootout whatever the standing within the factors race. Solely six gamers have earned $2 million or extra this season, and that is what the winner will get.
“I be ok with my recreation proper now,” Lee stated. “I want I knew the recipe for achievement, however simply strive my finest to experience the wave proper now.”
It has been fairly a experience. She was the No. 1 beginner a decade in the past after which struggled on the LPGA Tour and her confidence took a beating. Lee stated on a couple of event she started to suppose she would by no means win.
She had loads of help, together with one unlikely supply — Fred {Couples}. They performed in a company outing in New York this summer time. {Couples} obtained her quantity and started texting messages of encouragement, primarily that she had loads of recreation.
“He would ask me a whole lot of questions and I might ask him questions again, and I slowly began to confide in him over the past month or so little by little, type of telling my private expertise, what I went by means of, why I am on this place, why I did not consider in myself,” Lee stated.
“He is been enjoying golf for thus lengthy. He is nonetheless enjoying golf now. He is been all over the place. He is gained so many occasions on tour,” she stated. “He is been like a extremely nice mentor to me over the past month and hammering a whole lot of optimistic vitality and confidence.”
Nonetheless to go are 36 holes and a half-dozen gamers inside 4 photographs of the lead.
Lilia Vu, the double main winner this yr who moved again to No. 1 within the girls’s world rating, had a 66 and was nonetheless 6 photographs behind. However she moved nearer than ever to profitable the points-based LPGA participant of the yr. Celine Boutier must win the Tour Championship to have any probability, and she or he was 9 photographs out of the lead in a tie for thirty third.
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