Feng leads season finale

[caption id="attachment_99776" align="alignleft"] Shanshan Feng of China plays her shot on the second hole during the first round of the CME Group Tour Championship at Tiburon Golf Club in Naples, Florida, Thursday. — AFP
[/caption] NAPLES, Fla. — Shanshan Feng was right back on top of an LPGA Tour leaderboard Thursday, shooting a 6-under 66 to take a one-shot lead over So Yeon Ryu and Charley Hull after the first round of the CME Group Tour Championship. Coming off consecutive victories in Malaysia and Japan, Feng is one of nine players who entered the season finale with a chance to win the Race to the CME Globe season title and $1 million bonus. The Chinese star won in 2013 at Tiburon golf Club. Jang Ha-na, Kim Sei-young, Chun In-gee, Amy Yang, Lizette Salas, Beatriz Recari, Ryann O’Toole and Mo Martin all shot 68. Top-ranked Lydia Ko had a 70. She needs a win this week to secure player of the year honors, Ariya Jutanugarn and Brooke Henderson, who like Ko are guaranteed the points crown if they prevail this week, each shot 72. Feng has finished no worse than a tie for fourth in her last seven events. She started the run with the Olympic bronze medal in Rio, tied for fourth at Evian in France, opened the Asia trip at home in China with a fourth-place tie, was second in Taiwan and tied for third in South Korea before winning in Malaysia and Japan. She took last week off, practicing only three days in Orlando. Feng birdied four of the last six holes - the par-4 13th, par-5 14th, par-3 16th and par-5 17th - in her bogey-free round. She made a 30-foot birdie putt on the par-5 first hole and also birdied the par-3 eighth. Ryu won the last of her three LPGA Tour titles in 2014. Hull birdied the final four holes on the front nine and also birdied the 14th. She also was off last week after being delayed getting out of Japan. Carlota Ciganda had a 75. She won her first LPGA Tour title last month in South Korea and won the event in Mexico City Sunday. Ko and Jutanugarn are fighting for the big year-end honors. Only a win would be enough to give Ko her second straight player-of-the-year award; any other result, and that title goes to Jutanugarn. They came in separated by $17,305 in the money standings, and Ko (69.611) enters with a minuscule edge over Chun (69.632) for the Vare Trophy presented to the player with the lowest scoring average. LPGA heads to New Zealand The LPGA will head to New Zealand next year for the first time, giving world number one Lydia Ko the chance to showcase her skills to a hometown crowd in Auckland. The US$1.3 million New Zealand Women’s Open, to be held from September 28 to October 1, will kick off the LPGA’s Asia swing, with Ko ecstatic about the country securing such a high-profile tournament. LPGA Commissioner Mike Whan said the tour was “excited to extend our global reach” to New Zealand and the Windross Farm golf Course. “The New Zealand Women’s Open will be a tremendous addition to the LPGA schedule in 2017 and beyond,” he said. — AFP