{"id":913139,"date":"2026-10-02T06:20:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T06:20:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/913139\/"},"modified":"2026-10-02T06:20:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T06:20:13","slug":"choi-leads-early-aussie-challenge-in-oahu-australian-golf-digest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/913139\/","title":{"rendered":"Choi leads early Aussie challenge in Oahu \u2013 Australian Golf Digest"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Robyn Choi has started her quest for glory at the LPGA Tour\u2019s LOTTE Championship in Hawaii in fine style, ending her opening round just three shots off the pace.<\/p>\n<p>Choi, one of six Australians in the field, shot a four-under-par 68 on a rainy and breezy Thursday (Friday AEST) to be joint 10th.<\/p>\n<p>Her blemish-free round included birdies on holes six, seven, 15 and 18.<\/p>\n<p>Compatriots Grace Kim (69), Steph Kyriacou (70) and Gabriela Ruffels (71) are also under the card, while Cassie Porter and Hannah Green (both 73) have work to to do reach the weekend rounds.<\/p>\n<p>    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1790922013_240_.jpeg\" alt=\"(L-R) Grace Kim and Hannah Green.\"\/>Aussies Grace Kim and Hannah Green are hoping to add to their list of LPGA Tour wins in Hawaii. (<a href=\"https:\/\/photos.aap.com.au\/search\/20260603187501725762\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">AP PHOTO<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>A Lim Kim shot a seven-under 65 \u00a0at Hoakalei Country Club to take the first-round lead.<\/p>\n<p>The 2024 tournament winner birdied Nos. 15-17 and closed her bogey-free morning round with a par on the par-5 18th.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cToday rain is back and forth, back and forth, so tough conditions. But it was really good play,\u201d Kim said.<\/p>\n<p>The 30-year-old has three LPGA Tour victories to her name, also winning the 2020 US Women\u2019s Open and the 2025 Tournament of Champions.<\/p>\n<p>In the afternoon, fellow South Korean Ina Yoon pulled even with Kim at seven under with a birdie on the par-4 third hole \u2014 her 12th of the day \u2014 before dropping back with a bogey on the par-4 sixth. She parred the final three for a 66, while China\u2019s Yu Liu (66) closed her late afternoon round with a birdie on the par-3 ninth.<\/p>\n<p>Second-ranked Jeeno Thitikul was at 67 with Polly Mack, Michelle Zhang, Auston Kim, Maja Stark and Chanettee Wannasaen.<\/p>\n<p>Hawaii native Allisen Corpuz (68) is one of 11 players from the recent Solheim Cup in the field.<\/p>\n<p>The tournament leads to a month of tournaments in Asia, starting with the Buick LPGA Shanghai between October 15-18.<\/p>\n<p>With AAP.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Robyn Choi has started her quest for glory at the LPGA Tour\u2019s LOTTE Championship in Hawaii in fine&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":913140,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,405163,85,2614,12632],"class_list":["post-913139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-golf","tag-overseas-sport","tag-sports","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-women"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/913139","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=913139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/913139\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/913140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=913139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=913139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=913139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}