In the opening round of the Lotte Championship in Hawaii, rookie star from Japan Akie Iwai was in fantastic form, shooting a -8 64.
Iwai started fast and maintained throughout the round, with birdies on three of the opening four holes. She added one more on the par 5 18, her ninth hole of the day. On her second nine, Iwai made five more birdies, including four in a five hole stretch, to get to -9 for the round. She did bogey her final hole of the day though to dip back to -8.
Iwai had a nearly flawless round of golf. She hit 13/14 fairways and 17 greens in regulation. Once she was on the greens, her putter was in great form as well, needing only 27 strokes with the flat stick to get through the round. Iwai is in search of her second win this season, after a fantastic performance in Portland.
Behind her is a stacked leaderboard, especially after low scores were surrendered in the early wave Wednesday. Peiyun Chien, Gabi Ruffels and Nasa Hataoka are all one back at -7, while Pornanong Phatlum, Patty Tavatanakit and defending champion A Lim Kim are two back at -6.
The superstar grouping that included Nelly Korda and Charley Hull both ended up at -3 in the more difficult afternoon. Korda got off to a blazing -3 start but had trouble keeping that momentum.
The second round of the Lotte Championship is on Golf Channel in primetime tonight.
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