On a Moving Day morning at the JM Eagle LA Championship presented by Plastpro, the conditions were ripe for someone to take advantage – and try to make a dent in Grace Kim’s overnight lead.
Rookie Jin Hee Im took full advantage, as her 8-under 63 set the new tournament scoring record at Wilshire Country Club.
Kim, who had a four-shot lead through 36 holes, tied the previous scoring record when she shot a 7-under 64 in the opening round.
Im said she put herself in good spots with her irons – she missed just two greens in the third round – and had a solid day with her putter. She made nine birdies and had just a lone bogey, on the par-4 6th.
She shot a 6-under 30 coming in.
“The first two days I started really bad,” Im admitted. “But today I started good and played good.”
Im finished 8th last week at The Chevron Championship, her first top 10 on the LPGA Tour, and said she had a lot of confidence from that result.
“When I started the LPGA this year, the start of a few tournaments weren’t going what I thought – but now it’s going all right,” she said. “I don’t know when it is, but I feel like I can win a tournament pretty soon.”
While Im’s name is going to be etched in the Wilshire record books, she very nearly had company. Nasa Hataoka, a 2022 winner in Los Angeles, was also 8-under through 17 holes but bogeyed the par-3 18th to finish with a 7-under 64.
Hataoka birdied five of her first 10 holes and also holed out for eagle on the par-5 15th with a wedge. Her 64 was her lowest round of the season so far.
“I really like this golf course and I have to focus on my game. More birdies tomorrow,” Hataoka said. “I hit it good the last couple of days, but I couldn’t make my birdie chances. My stroke was better today. I just focused on my putting stroke, and it worked good.”
Patty Tavatanakit, a winner already this season, was 7-under through 13 holes but couldn’t quite steer her way into the house. She finished with a 4-under 67. The UCLA alum said she’s got plenty of friends in the area still and has lots of experience teeing it up at Wilshire.
“This golf course every single time I'm here it just really tells me that I can never get ahead of myself. Just got to pace myself out there and just be really present,” Tavatanakit said. “ I found some feels with hitting and just felt really solid for the whole day. Overall, I'm really happy with how I played today.”
Kim will tee it up in the final group Saturday at Wilshire alongside Maja Stark, looking for her first LPGA Tour title in about a year. And while Tavatanakit, Hataoka, and Im will have plenty of ground to make up in the final round, they proved Saturday that low scores could be had.
)
)
)
)
