Nasa Hataoka & Ruoning Yin leading in Florida

CME Group Tour Championship R1

The first round of play at the CME Group Tour Championship saw softer fairways and shortened holes after over four inches of rain on Wednesday.

Japan’s Nasa Hataoka and China’s Ruoning Yin carded bogey-free 9-under 63s to take the lead, just one birdie away from tying the 18-hole scoring record of 62 set by Lydia Ko in 2016.

Hataoka shot three-straight birdies on holes 2-4. Two more birdies on Nos. 6 and 8 set her up at 5-under at the turn. She started off the last nine holes with back-to-back birdies which put her in a tie with Sweden’s Anna Nordqvist at 7-under. Birdies on Nos. 13 and 17 placed her squarely in first place

“When I play Monday it was already — fairways already soft, so I really practice my hybrid shot,” said Hataoka. “It’s because longer iron — I practiced a lot assuming there would be a lot more distance needed for my iron shots, so that’s what I concentrated on because of the wet ground.”

Yin teed off in the second to last group of the day and also started with early birdies on Nos. 2 and 3 before firing off three in a row on holes 6-8. At 5-under heading into the back, Yin added another birdie on No. 12, back-to-back birdies on 14 and 15 and a final one on 17 to tie Hataoka atop the rest of the field.

“When I warm up because, because the wind is so windy and I just don’t feel great about my swing, but my coach is here this week and just right before the tee shot he told me, you’re looking great,” said Yin. “Your swing looking great. So just go play your game and just try to enjoy it.

Australia’s  winner Minjee Lee sunk a 10-foot birdie putt on No. 18 to put her into solo third behind the two leaders and ahead of Nordqvist at 7-under. Lee was also one of the 10 players to go bogey-free on Thursday, and had eight birdies overall including five on the back-nine. Nordqvist tied her season-low for the third me this year.

Pos.PlayerTo ParR!
T1Ruoning Yin-963
T1Nasa Hataoka-963
3Minjee Lee-864
4Anna Nordqvist-765
T5Georgia Hall-666
T5Alison Lee-666
T5Hye-Jin Choi-666
T5Yu Liu-666
T5Patty Tavatanakit-666
T10Xiyu Lin-567
T10Atthaya Thitikul-567
T10Jennifer Kupcho-567
T13Charley Hull-468
T13Nelly Korda-468
T13Yuka Saso-468
T13Leona Maguire-468
T13Ashleigh Buhai-468
T13Amy Yang-468
T13Esther Henseleit-468
T13Linnea Strom-468
T13Madelene Sagstrom-468
T22Celine Boutier-369
T22Hyo Joo Kim-369
T22Allisen Corpuz-369
T22Ayaka Furue-369
T22Hae Ran Ryu-369
T22Brooke M. Henderson-369
T22Linn Grant-369
T22Cheyenne Knight-369
T22Grace Kim-369
T22A Lim Kim-369
T32Lilia Vu-270
T32Ariya Jutanugarn-270
T32Hannah Green-270
T32Pajaree Anannarukarn-270
T32Aditi Ashok-270
T32Alexa Pano-270
T32Jasmine Suwannapura-270
T32Yuna Nishimura-270
T32Elizabeth Szokol-270
T41Jin Young Ko-171
T41Angel Yin-171
T41Megan Khang-171
T41Rose Zhang-171
T41Carlota Ciganda-171
T41Ally Ewing-171
T41Gaby Lopez-171
T41Sei Young Kim-171
T41Sarah Kemp-171
T50Jenny ShinPar72
T50Peiyun ChienPar72
T50Chanettee WannasaenPar72
T50Perrine DelacourPar72
T50Andrea LeePar72
T55Maja Stark+173
T55Stephanie Kyriacou+173
T55Bianca Pagdanganan+173
58Jodi Ewart Shadoff+274
T59Gemma Dryburgh+375
T59Danielle Kang+375
Updated: November 17, 2023
CME Group Tour Championship 2023
Date: 16th November - 19th November, 2023
Location: Tiburón Golf Club, Naples, Florida
Purse: $7,000,000