Hataoka hunts title, bonus as Olson takes lead

MIAMI, Florida: Japan’s Nasa Hataoka put herself in position for a $1 million LPGA season bonus but settled for second to American Amy Olson after Thursday’s opening round of the LPGA Tour Championship.

Olson, whose best showing in five career LPGA campaigns was a runner-up finish at this year’s Evian Championship in France, fired a bogey-free career low nine-under-par 63 at Tiburon Golf Club in Naples, Florida, to seize the 18-hole lead.

“It’s just fun to be playing well,” Olson said. “It’s always a good feeling. I had a lot like perfect numbers in today. Rolled the ball really well. I was just seeing the line, reading the putts really well, and hitting it where I wanted.”

Teen sensation Hataoka, who won the Northwest Arkansas Championshiop in June and the Japan Classic earlier this month, fired a bogey-free 64 to share second with American Brittany Lincicome.

But in doing so, the 19-year-old Asian star jumped from fourth to first in the projected CME Globe bonus race standings, pushing ahead of world number one Ariya Jutanugarn of Thailand, who opened seven off the pace.

Ariya has clinched LPGA Player of the Year and money titles and is a runaway leader for the Vare Trophy for low scoring average. If she could take the bonus, she would be the first woman to sweep every major season-ending LPGA award.

Olson birdied the par-5 opening hole, ran off four birdies in a row to close the front nine and four more in a row from the par-5 14th through the par-5 17th.Lincicome, who began her round with five birdies in a row, closed with a bogey or she would have matched Olson for the lead.“I didn’t really even think about it until maybe like the fifth one in a row,” Lincicome said.