{"id":188831,"date":"2025-10-04T03:28:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-04T03:28:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/188831\/"},"modified":"2025-10-04T03:28:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-04T03:28:07","slug":"akie-iwai-leads-at-hoakalei-with-8-players-a-shot-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/188831\/","title":{"rendered":"Akie Iwai leads at Hoakalei, with 8 players a shot back"},"content":{"rendered":"

HONOLULU — Akie Iwai<\/a> fought through gusting wind Friday at Hoakalei Country Club to take the third-round lead in the LOTTE Championship, with eight players a stroke back and Nelly Korda<\/a> two behind.<\/p>\n

Iwai, the 23-year-old Japanese player who won the Portland Classic in August for her first LPGA Tour title, shot a 1-under 71 in the difficult afternoon conditions to get to 13-under 203.<\/p>\n

“No change. Just keep going,” Iwai said. “Have smile and have fun.”<\/p>\n

Second-round leader Youmin Hwang<\/a> followed her career-best 62 on Thursday with a 75 to drop into a tie for second with Minami Katsu<\/a> (66), Hyo Joo Kim<\/a> (66), Megan Khang<\/a> (67), Peiyun Chien<\/a> (68), Brooke Matthews<\/a> (69), Pornanong Phatlum<\/a> (69) and Jessica Porvasnik<\/a> (72).<\/p>\n

“I’m sure there will be a lot of wind tomorrow, too,” Katsu said. “Hopefully, just try to be patient.”<\/p>\n

The second-ranked Korda birdied the 18th for a 69 to get to 11 under.<\/p>\n

Coming off a seven-victory season, Korda hasn’t won this year and has lost her No. 1 ranking to Jeeno Thitikul. The tour has had a different winner in all 24 of its official tournaments this year.<\/p>\n

“For me the most important thing is giving 100% to every shot.” Korda said. “That’s what I’m going to do tomorrow. You never know. Golf is a crazy sport. Sports are crazy.”<\/p>\n

Nasa Hataoka<\/a> also was 11 under after a 71. Defending champion A Lim Kim<\/a> shot a 66 to get to 10 under.<\/p>\n

Iwai steadied herself after a bogey on the par-3 12th, making a sensational up-and-down on No. 13 for the first of six straight pars. She missed a chance to double the lead on the par-5 18th, blasting out of a bunker to 6 feet and failing to get the birdie try to fall.<\/p>\n

“I forget what happened today and get ready for tomorrow,” Iwai said.<\/p>\n

On the par-4 13th, Iwai avoided a second straight bogey after hitting into a massive fairway bunker and leaving her approach 56 yards short in the right rough. She hit a wedge to 3 feet to start the par run, and has hit 46 of 54 greens in regulation in three days,<\/p>\n

“I would say I’m a shot-maker,” Iwai said.<\/p>\n

Iwai shot a 64 on Wednesday to take the first-round lead, then had a 68 on Thursday to fall three strokes behind Hwang, the Korean LPGA star playing on a sponsor invitation.<\/p>\n

Iwai’s twin sister Chisato<\/a>, also has won this year as a tour rookie, taking the Mayakoba event in May. On Friday, Chisato was 9 under after a 71.<\/p>\n

After the event, the LPGA heads to Asia for tournaments five straight weeks in Shanghai, South Korea, Malaysia and Japan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HONOLULU — Akie Iwai fought through gusting wind Friday at Hoakalei Country Club to take the third-round lead…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":188832,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-188831","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-golf","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188831\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/188832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}