NAPLES, Fla. — Angel Yin holed a 30-foot par putt on his first hole, setting the tone for a day of big putts and a 3-under 69 that gave him a two-shot lead Friday in the CME Group Tour Championship and the race for the prize of 4 million dollars.
Nelly Korda was very visible in his rearview mirror.
Korda, who is coming off his seventh victory of the season last week, opened with a 72 and was eight shots behind. She found a simple swing after the round and returned to her old self with a 66 that cut the deficit in half with 36 holes to play.
New swing thinking is key to Nelly Korda’s turnaround at CME Tour Championship
Surprise, surprise – Nelly Korda is back in contention at the CME Group Tour Championship.
“Golf is just crazy,” Korda said. “You go from playing so well last week to not being able to find the center of the clubface yesterday. It always makes you humble, but what is it that you love so much about it. I went to the stand after my tour yesterday. I tried to find a different feeling. I felt a little better today and I hope I can continue to improve.
Yin followed that 30-foot par putt with a 40-foot birdie putt on the next hole. She also made a birdie putt from about 35 feet on the 11th hole, which put her in the lead for good.
She was at 10-under 134. Hye-Jin Choi (68) and Narin An (72) were 8-under.
Korda, who already won her first player of the year award, was tied for fourth with 138 with four other players who are either major champions or No. 1 in the women’s world rankings: Jeeno Thitikul, Ayaka Furue and Ruoning Yin. and Amy Yang, the reigning champion at Tiburon Golf Club.
Furue is also in a tight battle for the Vare Trophy for lowest scoring average, and she closed to within a fraction of a point of Haeran Ryu.
Yin’s round featured enough bogeys to slow her momentum, as well as a discussion with a rules official about where she took her fall after entering the water on the par-3 fourth hole.
“It looks like I had an inappropriate fall where I went up closer than I should have, where I should have gone down further back,” said Yin, who was asked to review the footage. “They thought I didn’t make the decision correctly. I explained to them that I thought I had taken the drop correctly.
She said this was discussed with everyone in her group. She said a marshal never provided any information. The fall held, she took a bogey and left.
“I think my gout was good,” Yin said.
Korda, meanwhile, came close to the cut with birdie chances, then made up for it on the third hole when her 8-iron from the rough landed so perfectly that it rolled into the cut for an eagle. That sent her away.
The key to getting his game on track was removing the club and taking a shorter swing. It all came together. Korda also said she was finally able to rest after a busy week of awards.
Yin won $1 million last year in the Aon Risk-Reward Challenge, a year-round bonus competition that measures players’ performance on holes involving risk, such as a reachable par 5. That million dollars meant a lot to her, and she said so. gave him some financial freedom.
What would $4 million mean?
“Even greater financial freedom,” she said.
