Lauren Coughlin knows Shadow Creek and it helps her to 3-way share of the lead on LPGA

NORTH LAS VEGAS, Nev. (AP) — Lauren Coughlin showed her familiarity with Shadow Creek by opening with a 5-under 67, putting her in a three-way tie for the lead Thursday with Nasa Hataoka and Women’s British Open champion Miyu Yamashita in the Aramco Championship.

Coughlin played 127 holes last year at Shadow Creek when the tournament was match play, with every match going at least the distance. She wound up as the runner-up to Madelene Sagstrom.

The Aramco Championship is co-sanctioned with the Ladies European Tour, which has leaned on Saudi Arabia’s state oil company to sponsor the Aramco series that often attracts LPGA players wherever it plays around the world. The total purse this week is $4 million and the tournament shifted to stroke play.

“I feel like I know this place really well. Been in a lot of the places that you don’t want to be, so I feel like … I just know the spots that I need to land it to a lot of the pins, where to miss if you have to,” said Coughlin, who didn’t drop a shot until her final hole on No. 9.

“Yeah, it was nice to not play seven rounds hopefully in five days like last year,” she said.

Nelly Korda and Hyo Joo Kim are side by side, again, at least on the scoreboard. Korda made eagle on the par-5 18th for a 68, while Kim made bogey on her opening hole and didn’t drop another shot the rest of the way for a 68.

Kim has won the last two weeks on the LPGA Tour, both times with Korda as the runner-up. There haven’t been players who finished 1-2 in consecutive weeks on the LPGA in 25 years.

Shadow Creek has been part of the LPGA schedule since 2021, but the last five years have been match play. Now it’s an Aramco event, and the fabled course attracted every player from the top 20 in the women’s world ranking.

“It’s great,” Coughlin said of the strong field. “And we have a really great golf course that tests every bit of your game.”

Kim won the Founders Cup at Sharon Heights in northern California, and then last week the Ford Championship in Arizona. The 30-year-old South Korean is trying to win a third straight week. The last player to do that was Korda in 2024 during her streak of winning five straight starts. Her third week in a row winning that year also was at Shadow Creek.

Jin Yang also shot a 68 to trail by one shot. As tough as the course could be if players got out of position, 10 players managed to break 70.

Vancouver’s Anna Huang was the low Canadian at 72. Brooke Henderson of Smiths Falls, Ont., trailed well behind after a round of 77.

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The Associated Press