Danielle Kang opens with 63 to lead LPGA Tour season opener

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) — American Danielle Kang stepped to the tee at the treacherous par-3 finishing hole at the LPGA’s season-opening Diamond Resorts Tournament of Champions on Thursday and had a bit of a problem. Standing 204 yards from the flag stick, she told her caddie that she didn’t have a club for the shot.

That’s when she got creative, choosing a 5-wood and hitting a huge cut that traveled perfectly before settling 18 feet below the hole. She missed the putt that had 4 feet of break. But the tee shot summed up just how good her day had gone.

Kang birdied half the holes at Four Seasons Golf and Sports Club, made a single bogey, and her 8-under 63 was enough to carve out a two-shot lead.

Gaby Lopez, Angela Stanford and Inbee Park, recently named the LPGA’s player of the decade, each opened at 65. Lexi Thompson was in a group at 5-under 66. Twenty-one of the 26 players broke par.

Temperatures in the low 80s and gentle winds made scoring conducive for the elite field of 26 LPGA players who won tournaments the past two seasons. The pros share the stage with 49 celebrities who compete for their own purse using a modified Stableford system.

Kang, 27, is a three-time champion on the LPGA and winner of one major (2017 Women's PGA) who has climbed to No. 4 in the Rolex Rankings. She finished strongly in 2019, placing third or better in her final three starts, which included a victory in China at the Buick LPGA Shanghai.

Kang said she really never took an offseason since her last start in Florida in late November, taking part in outings in Hawaii and Palm Springs and spending time working with renowned instructor Butch Harmon in Las Vegas.

She was excited to learn she’d be paired with country singer Lee Brice, with whom she played in this event a year...

source https://www.chron.com/sports/article/Danielle-Kang-opens-with-63-to-lead-LPGA-Tour-14981378.php