Danielle Kang Out Front at HSBC Women’s World Championship by 4 Shots

Danielle Kang eyeing up a shot on the fairway

Danielle Kang shot 8 under to give her a 4 shot lead on Friday in the Women’s World Championship despite dealing with a chipped tooth. Kang is the reigning champion at the Worlds, with last year’s win being her first major title, and tied the course record of 12 under 132.

Commenting on the tie, Kang said,

“Never too bad to tie a course record, that’s interesting to hear. I like that.”

Nelly Korda, the sister of Jessica Korda and winner of last week’s Thailand LPA Tour event, shot 66 while Alex Marians shot 67. Cristie Kerr, Minjee Lee and Chella Choi each shot 66, 67 and 69 respectively and were slightly behind at seven under par.

Kang found she had a broken tooth shortly after dozing off before Thursdays starting round. Her opening day saw her shooting a 68 and having eight birdies and did not have a single bogey for the day.

Said Kang,

“My game is coming easy right now. There are lots of birdies out there. I’m more focused on being present and just hitting the shots. I’m hitting it well, rolling the putt well. So I’m not really worried about the results of how those shots come out. It feels like just a cruising day.”

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For Kang, the broken tooth was painless, but was still burdensome when swinging the club. Commenting she said,

“Every time I hit a shot, I’m like, it keeps scratching _ it’s raw here, but it’s OK. I just don’t chew on this side. I’ll be fine. My dentist told me, I’ve chipped another one before, and he said, ‘You don’t break it at that moment’. It’s been broken and it just chips off. So I don’t know how it broke.”

Nelly Korda, whose father Petr is the 98 Australian Open Champion had a solid performance for the day getting birdies on the last of her six holes. Korda is hoping to copy her sister and brother this year and win some tournaments. Sister Jessica won last week’s Thailand event, and her brother won the Junior Boys Australian Open.

“We obviously have a little bit of a sibling rivalry, but everything is very friendly. She does make me want to be a better player, and seeing her win last week after the tough off-season she’s had was definitely very inspiring, and hopefully I can step my game up this week and take it home, but we’ll see.”

Korda managed to be 6 under par at the half-way point and was on-par with Austin Ernst and Lizette Salas at 67, Charley Hull was sitting at 68 and Ha Na Jang at 68. Shanshan Feng completed the day at 4 under par whilst Michelle Wie was at 73 after losing ground.

Golf betting sites are in high spirits as the golf season gets underway, and with the Women’s World Championship, the timing is perfect to get your bets in and pick a winner. As day two gets underway, it will be interesting to see if Kang, who was voted Most Beautiful Women in Golf in 2017, will stay out in front, or if Korda, who is a close second will take over the lead.

Author Noah is our American writer who likes to give his own spin on everything Golf & the NHL he covers mainly the US side of the game as Doug covers the Canada. In his time off he can usually be taking to the greens or on the ice playing some hockey