Hye-Jin Choi Takes First-Round Lead at the 2026 Buick LPGA Shanghai

• Hye-Jin Choi shot a bogey-free 64 to lead the Buick LPGA Shanghai.
• Carlota Ciganda is second, three strokes back.
• Defending champion Jeeno Thitikul is tied for seventh.

Hye-Jin Choi has won 12 times on the KLPGA and banked $7.2m in official LPGA earnings. She has yet to win on the LPGA Tour. On Thursday she put herself in position to change that, carding a bogey-free 8-under 64 to lead the Buick LPGA Shanghai by three strokes after the opening round.

The South Korean made eight birdies at Sheshan Golf Club, four of them in a row on her second nine. Hers was one of only three bogey-free rounds in the field. The 64 is her lowest score of the season and ties her career-best opening round. She last shot 64 in the first round of the 2025 Maybank Championship, where she went on to finish tied second.

“I really feel like I’m kind of exhausted, and I feel like I really did hard work today,” said Choi. “Some of the situations I felt like couldn’t make a par save but I made a good shot and good putt on the par saves, and I’m really satisfied about myself.”

A record in Shanghai

This is Choi’s fourth start in the event, and her results so far read T3, T5 and T11. In 2023 she closed with a bogey-free 64 to share third place behind Angel Yin. All of those finishes came at Qizhong. This is the first Buick LPGA Shanghai, and the sixth staging overall, at Sheshan, which hosted the HSBC Champions 11 times when it was a World Golf Championship event.

Her 2026 season has been steady rather than spectacular: 17 cuts made in 22 starts and four top-10s. The best of those was a runner-up finish at the Dow Championship alongside Hyo Joo Kim. She arrived in China off a tie for 13th at the LOTTE Championship.

There is an old rivalry in the field, too. Choi finished second to Jeeno Thitikul in the 2022 Rookie of the Year standings, and the Thai player has gone on to win 11 times on Tour. Choi’s career tally stands at 33 top-10s.

Ciganda keeps rolling

Carlota Ciganda matched Choi’s eight birdies, the most in the field, but three bogeys left her at 5-under. The Spaniard has now shot 67 in consecutive LPGA rounds, following a closing 67 at the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship. The score matches both her lowest round of the season and her best opening round, equalling her first-round 67 at the Riviera Maya Open at Mayakoba.

China’s Ruoning Yin is in the group tied for third at 4-under, and she is playing in front of plenty of support.

“The fans are amazing and they’re rooting for me if I play bad or no matter I played bad or good, they just always cheering for me, which I really appreciate it,” said Yin. “But, you know, I still want to have a better performance for the next three days. Just, you know, make them proud.”

Thitikul lurking

Thitikul won this title last year, beating Minami Katsu in a five-hole playoff. She opened her defence with a 3-under 69 to sit tied for seventh, five off the pace. She has shot 70 or better in every round she has played in this event.

The world No. 2 arrives in form. Earlier this month she won the LOTTE Championship in Hawaii for her fourth LPGA Tour victory of the season and 11th overall.

Shanghai is the first of four events on the LPGA Tour’s late-season Asian Swing. Tournaments in South Korea, Malaysia and Japan follow over the next three weeks.

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Sixteen places, five nights at the Old Course Hotel and four links rounds finishing on the Old Course itself.

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Buick LPGA Shanghai Leaderboard