Hyo Joo Kim takes 3-stroke lead in Marathon Classic

The afternoon portion of Thursday’s opening round of the Marathon Classic, with its steady swirling winds, was decidedly more challenging than the morning shift, which benefited from overnight rains.

Ko managed to contend with the windy conditions at Highland Meadows to shoot a 5-under-par 66 for a 36-hole total of 8-under 134.

The 46-year-old former Masters victor from Argentina holed a 60-foot putt for an eagle the par-five 13th and made birdies on the par-five fifth and 16th holes for his best round of 2016. Lee Lopez, Ariya Jutanugarn and Mirim Lee are one shot back of those two, and Stacy Lewis and Nomura headline a group of five at 5 under.

“Yesterday was way better”, Kim said through a translator. “I will be happy again tomorrow”.

“I hit good drives, good tee shots and iron shots”, Kim said. “On the last hole, I missed a putt, but it was a great round”. There were just so many positives to take from it. 2, 4, and 6.

“Today par-putter is good”, Nomura said. I had four putts I thought I made, especially early on.

“It was hard playing in the swirling wind, but I had good communication with my caddie, so my shots were good”.

“I let one – it was a very dumb one – slip on the last hole”, she said. It was a good score. “It’s definitely been a while since I’ve felt like this, but it was worth the wait”.

He had four more birdies coming in, with his lone bogey of the day at the par-four fourth. 9, 12, 13, and 17. “Because this golf course really small green”. I think it helped me today. “I just need to keep trusting what I’m doing”. “But I feel like I played pretty well today just to kind of maybe put a little heat on him on the weekend with some birdies”.

The 19-year-old Kiwi’s best patch came midway through, shooting successive birdies from holes seven to nine.

Lydia Ko reads a putt on the first green en route to a 67 in the third round of the Marathon Classic.

Lewis birdied six of the first 13 holes in her bogey-free round.

Kim won the season-opening event in the Bahamas for her third career title.

The tournament features all three of this year’s major winners ― Ko, Brooke Henderson and Brittany Lang, victor of last week’s US Women’s Open.

Henderson got as low as four-under, but bogeyed her finishing hole, the ninth.