Aug 22, 2025, 08:03 PM ET<\/p>\n
MISSISSAUGA, Ontario — Akie Iwai took a three-stroke lead into the weekend in the CPKC Women’s Open in her bid to win for the second straight week.<\/p>\n
Iwai followed her opening 7-under 64 with a 69 on Friday to get to 9-under 133 at Mississaugua Golf and Country Club.<\/p>\n
The 23-year-old Japanese player won the Portland Classic on Sunday to join twin sister Chisato as a rookie LPGA Tour champion. She’s trying to keep it simple and not get ahead of herself.<\/p>\n
“No change mind. No change swing. Just focus my golf,” she said.<\/p>\n
Jeeno Thitikul, the Thai star making her first start since taking the No. 1 spot in the world from Nelly Korda, had a 70 for a share of second place with Minjee Lee (67) and Leona Maguire (70).<\/p>\n
Slumping Canadian star Brooke Henderson rebounded from an opening 71 with a 66 to get to 5 under. The 2018 champion won the last of her 13 LPGA Tour titles in January 2023.<\/p>\n
“I’m right there,” Henderson said. “Just got to keep going, put two more solid rounds together.”<\/p>\n
She played alongside Thitikul and Lottie Woad, the Women’s Scottish Open winner who shot 75-69 to miss the cut by a stroke. Defending champion Lauren Coughlin also dropped out, shooting 74-70. She won last year in Calgary.<\/p>\n
Akie Iwai, a six-time winner on the JLPGA Tour, is playing in Canada for the first time. On Friday on the tree-lined course, she played the front nine in even par with two birdies and two bogeys. She birdied the par-5 13th and par-4 17th on the second nine.<\/p>\n
“Today, also I gave many birdie chances, but I just didn’t get,” she said. “I left putts short.”<\/p>\n
Chisato Iwai, the winner at Mayakoba in May in Mexico, also missed the cut by a stroke with rounds of 75 and 69.<\/p>\n
Korda was 4 under after her second 69. She had a double bogey on the par-3 third.<\/p>\n
Aphrodite Deng, the 15-year-old Canadian amateur who was tied for second after an opening 66, shot 73 to drop into a tie for 15th at 3 under.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aug 22, 2025, 08:03 PM ET MISSISSAUGA, Ontario — Akie Iwai took a three-stroke lead into the weekend…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":91881,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-91880","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-golf","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91880\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}