South Korea’s Somi Lee carded an 8-under-par 64 to take a two-stroke lead after one round of the season-concluding CME Group Tour Championship on Thursday in Naples, Fla.
Allisen Corpuz is Lee’s closest pursuer, coming in with a 6-under total of 66, and four players got to the clubhouse with identical 67s.
Only the top 60 players in the season-long standings qualified for the season finale, with an $11 million purse on the line and $4 million available to the winner, one of the biggest prizes in women’s golf.
Lee got to 9 under after making an eagle on the par-5 17th hole, but suffered her lone bogey of the day on the finishing hole. She made seven birdies in her first 15 holes around Tiburon Golf Club.
“My tee shot and putter was the things I was focusing on and I really practiced them a lot,” Lee said through a translator. “I think that was the foundation to my success today.”
Lee won the Dow Championship while partnered with countrywoman Jin Hee Im in late June. Im is one of the four players three strokes behind Lee.
Corpuz started slowly, bogeying the third hole, then rattled off four consecutive birdies to get her round in gear. She added three birdies on the back nine as she started to feel more comfortable in the surroundings.
“I think every year I come back and the course feels a little friendlier,” Corpuz said. “It’s been really cold for the last few years as well and I think it’s played a little shorter with it being a little warmer, which always helps me.”
Along with Im, Japan’s Nasa Hataoka, Japan, South Korea’s Sei Young Kim and Thailand’s Jeeno Thitikul sit three strokes behind the leader.
For Thitikul, the world’s top-ranked player, she is just anxious to get to the finish line of a brilliant 2025 campaign. She suffered a wrist injury at last week’s The Annika Tournament.
“I just trying to survive for my wrist,” Thitikul said. “I just had the interview, first time told the media that I do have like wrist problem from last week, I think from hitting balls into like hard ground.
“I (was) able to finish yesterday with the pro-am 18 and I felt better, and then today I feel like not — it’s not really bother me that much now, so I think it’s getting better. I think it should be fine.”
