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GOLD CANYON, Ariz. (AP) — Alison Lee and Jenny Shin each reeled off four straight birdies in the middle of their rounds and joined Gaby Lopez at 7-under 65 Thursday to share a one-stroke lead after the first round of the LPGA Drive on Championship.

Lee, a 28-year-old American looking for her first tour win, birdied four of her first five holes. And, after a bogey at No. 16, her seventh hole, she pieced together a four straight birdies and five in the next six holes to reach 8 under at Superstition Mountain Golf Club before a bogey on her final hole dropped her into a three-way tie for the top spot of a crowded leaderboard.

Shin, a 30-year-old from South Korea looking for her first win since 2016, posted seven birdies from Nos. 8 through 18 to earn a share of the lead in the tour's first full-field event of the season.

Lopez had a bogey-free round. The 29-year-old Mexican started on the back nine and made the turn at 4-under par before adding three birdies on the front side to tie for the lead.

Taiwan's Wei-Ling Hsu and England's Jodi Ewart Shadoff were tied for fourth after opening 66s. Ten players are tied for sixth place at 5 under, as 114 golfers in the 142-player field carded a score of even par or better. Play was suspended with one group left on the course, but none of the players threatening the leaders.

Lee, who made the cut in 22 of her 24 events last season with a T-5 as her best finish at the Women’s Scottish Open, felt she left some shots on the course.

“This sounds cliche, but I just feel like it was one of those days,” Lee said. “Golf just was easy. ... I honestly was playing so good I feel like I could have shot a lower round out there today.”

Shin, who had a third-place finish among her three top-10s last season, was buoyed by her recent finishes in Singapore and Thailand, where she found herself in contention.

“I’ve been out here for 13 years and the game of golf has changed so much,” Shin said. “The girls hit it so long and so straight and the putts are going in. ... So it was very refreshing and very nice to know that I was able to keep myself up there and know that I can do it as well.”

Lopez, a threee-time winner on the LPGA Tour, played the course for the first time in five years and said her focus this year is to take a lighter approach to her craft.

“I’m going to take it lighter this year,” she said. “Not going to play as many tournaments as I’ve done before, so going to take it a little easier on my body. Trying to enjoy a little bit more every single day out there.”

The 28-year-old Hsu posted the finest round of the morning wave. She got off to a fast start, one-hopping her second shot on the opening hole into the cup for eagle. She followed that with a birdie at the par-5 second, hitting her third shot from about 60 yards to 2 feet to get to 3 under after two holes. She finished at 6 under.

“Of course, I didn’t expect any like hole-out on very first hole,” said Hsu, whose lone win on the LPGA Tour came in 2021 at the Pure Silk Championship. “(This) feels like this is my first event of the year, so you don’t really think about anything. Like my first hole ... I thought my ball went over the green and disappear.”

No. 2-ranked Nelly Korda and No. 3-ranked Jin Young Ko opened with a 2-under 70s. Ko was a winner two weeks ago in Singapore, where she beat Korda by two strokes.

The event will debut the LPGA’s new cut policy. The cut after 36 holes will include the top 65 players and ties advancing to the weekend. Previously, the top 70 players and ties advanced to the final rounds.

NOTES: Top-ranked Lydia Ko is not competing in the event. ... Defending champion Leona Maguire was in a logjam of players at 2-under 70. ... Danielle Kang withdrew from the event after 14 holes. She was at 2 over at the time. No reason was immediately given for Kang's withdrawal.

___

AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

3c:T101c,

Shin, a 30-year-old from South Korea looking for her first win since 2016, posted seven birdies from Nos. 8 through 18 to earn a share of the lead in the tour's first full-field event of the season.

Lopez had a bogey-free round. The 29-year-old Mexican started on the back nine and made the turn at 4-under par before adding three birdies on the front side to tie for the lead.

Lee, who made the cut in 22 of her 24 events last season with a T-5 as her best finish at the Women’s Scottish Open, felt she left some shots on the course.

Shin, who had a third-place finish among her three top-10s last season, was buoyed by her recent finishes in Singapore and Thailand, where she found herself in contention.

Lopez, a threee-time winner on the LPGA Tour, played the course for the first time in five years and said her focus this year is to take a lighter approach to her craft.

No. 2-ranked Nelly Korda and No. 3-ranked Jin Young Ko opened with a 2-under 70s. Ko was a winner two weeks ago in Singapore, where she beat Korda by two strokes.

___

AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

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SYLVANIA, Ohio (AP) — Gaby Lopez rallied from four shots behind Sunday and closed with three straight birdies for a 8-under 63 and a one-shot victory in the Dana Open.

Lopez finished her big run with a 12-foot birdie putt on the par-5 18th at Highland Meadow, setting off a series of fist pumps, knowing it would keep her one shot ahead of Megan Khang.

All that was left for the 28-year-old Mexican was to see if anyone could catch her.

No one came particularly close, and Lopez had her third career LPGA Tour victory, and her first since the Tournament of Champions to start the 2020 season.

“I knew I had to make it because Megan was going to make hers,” Lopez said. “I practice exactly for this moment. We got the job done.”

Khang, who shot 29 on the front on a rain-softened course, closed with a 64.

Lucy Li, the 19-year-old Californian who started the final round with a one-shot lead, struggled to make birdies. Her hopes effectively ended when she hit into a fairway bunker on the 16th hole, played well short of the green and missed a 5-foot par putt.

Li birdied the 18th hole for a 70 and tied for fourth. She already has her LPGA Tour card for next season through the Epson Tour. Li tied for ninth in Canada last week to get into the Dana Open, and now she is eligible to play the LPGA event in Cincinnati next week.

“Yesterday I was a little nervous on the first couple of holes. Today didn’t really feel nervous at all, so that was definitely good,” Li said. “There is lots of lessons to be learned, but today I hit it good and I just couldn’t get a lot of the putts to fall honestly.”

The start of the final round had a feel of a battle of prodigies — Lexi Thompson qualified for the U.S. Women's Open in 2007 when she was 12, and then Li broke her record in 2014 by qualifying at 11.

They were in the final group, along with Caroline Masson of Germany. In the end, none was really a factor.

Thompson has gone more than three years without winning and she didn't make a birdie until the final hole. She closed with a 73 and tied for 16th, seven shots behind.

Li had one birdie and 14 pars as Lopez and Khang took over at Highland Meadow.

Masson was one shot behind Li at the start and was quickly forgotten when she opened with a double bogey and followed that with a bogey to fall four behind. In the end, Masson was the last one with a chance, though she would have needed an eagle-eagle finish on the two closing par 5s.

She birdied them both for a 68 to finish alone in third.

For Lopez, it was a matter of not trying to think too much about every shot, every result, and put her in a comfortable frame of mind on a wild day in which she had 10 players ahead of her at the start.

“This is going to sound crazy, but today felt more like a Friday round,” Lopez said. “Having that quiet is what we're working on, and it has paid off.”

She was two shots behind and missed 6-foot birdie chances on the ninth and 11th and never lost focus on what she was trying to do.

“Doubts come into your mind,” Lopez said. “But my caddie said, ‘We jus keep doing what we’re doing. It’s definitely working, and we’re going to commit to that the last hole and see what happens.'

"If you keep it in the present, that's when magic happens.”

___

More AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

3e:Tdf9,

Gaby Lopez

Gaby Lopez

Korda wins U.S. Women's Open for 4th major victory

Lee, Shin, Lopez share lead at LPGA's 1st full-field event

Gaby Lopez birdies final 3 holes for 63 to win Dana Open

Gaby Lopez opens LPGA season with 67 for 1-shot lead