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NORTON, Mass.: Allizen Corpuz kept her patience while spinning her wheels for so much of the year and finally saw some good results Thursday when she opened the FM Championship with a 7-under 65 to share the first-round lead with Sei Young Kim and fast-closing Jodi Ewart Shadoff.

Corpuz had four birdies on her last six holes at the TPC Boston, holing a 10-foot birdie putt on the par-4 ninth to catch Kim, who played in calmer conditions in the morning.

Shadoff was the last to finish, and she did so in style with four straight birdies.

“Holed a lot of putts outside 20 feet, so that definitely helps. And then the last four just good ball striking and some really nice putts,” Ewart Shadoff said.

Nelly Korda switched putters to more of a blade and saw it pay off with seven birdies in a round of 67 in her debut on the TPC Boston course that previously hosted one of the four PGA Tour postseason events.

Corpuz has only one LPGA victory and it was a big one — the US Women’s Open at Pebble Beach two years ago. She had a pair of top 10s early in the year, including a third in the Ford Championship in Phoenix in late March. That was her last top 10.

“Just feel like golf is such a funny game,” Corpuz said. “Even if it hasn’t been the results that I wanted to see, it’s just felt really, really close all season. It was a good start to the season and kind of just feel like things are starting to turn the corner a bit.”

Kim played in the morning when the weather was slightly cooler and she wondered if that would make the course play longer with the golf ball not flying as much. But she birdied three of the par 5s until having to settle for a par on the closing hole that has a large ditch in front of the green and big swales around it.

That’s what tripped up Jeeno Thitikul of Thailand in her second week since returning to No. 1 in the women’s world ranking. She blasted a tee shot down the right side, but her approach on the par-5 18th missed left and went down that steep slope. Her first pitch came up short and rolled back to her feet, and the Thai took a bogey for a 69.

Two stories have been in play all year on the LPGA — 22 consecutive tournaments to start the year with different winners at each one, and Korda not winning any of them. Korda is coming off a seven-win 2024 and only two weeks ago lost the No. 1 ranking to Thitikul.

Her 67 left her in a log jam of players tied for third that included Women’s PGA champion Minjee Lee, Celine Boutier, Andrea Lee and Gurleen Kaur, the LPGA rookie who had to go through Monday qualifying to get into the field.

Korda said the Florida courses where she lives aren’t in the best shape in the hot summer, so she wasn’t sure what she thought of the putter at home. But she took it to Canada, liked how it felt and kept it in the bag. It’s a similar model to the one she was using last year.

“Just something new,” Korda said, who also went with a different grip on the putter. “I knew I had so much success with that kind of putter and felt confident with it. Just needed to feel something different.”

Ronaldo is still a name above all others when attention turns to the Saudi football league’s season-opening round.
Just like it was earlier this month when more than 30,000 fans turned out in Hong Kong to watch Al-Nassr defeat Al-Ittihad 2-1 in the first semifinal of the Saudi Super Cup on Aug. 19, he’s part of the league’s growth and marketing plans.
“The majority can only be described as Cristiano Ronaldo fans,” Chris KL Lau, a Hong Kong resident and fan, told The Associated Press. “The match had an electric buzz and each time Ronaldo had the ball there was excitement.”
The Portuguese star was mobbed the following day when he visited the city’s official Cristiano Ronaldo museum. “Fans have traveled from across China, ����ֱ�� and the Asia-Pacific to see him,” Lau said.
After Ronaldo left Manchester United and joined the Saudi Pro League in December 2022, other big names followed to Riyadh, Jeddah and elsewhere, including Karim Benzema, Neymar and Riyad Mahrez. The ‘Big Four’ – Al-Nassr, Ittihad as well as Al-Hilal and Al-Ahli – were taken over by ����ֱ��’s Public Investment Fund in 2023 and have budgets as big as ambitions.
The league season kicked off Thursday with three games. Ronaldo’s Al-Nassr opens Friday against Al-Taawoun.
While the five-time Ballon d’Or winner is still the international face of the league, backers are working to expand the reach of the league. But the importance of Ronaldo’s presense was evident in the second game at Hong Kong Stadium between Al-Ahli and Al-Qadsiah, when organizers announced a crowd of 16,000. Some doubt that figure.
“Those who were at the game reckon only 5,000 to 6,000 fans were inside,” Lau said “Fans were happy to splash the cash for Ronaldo but were less inclined to do so for Al-Ahli and Al Qadsiah. This resulted in rows of empty seats.”
Expanding influence
Simon Chadwick, a specialist in the relationship between sports, geopolitics and economics, said while people are aware Ronaldo plays in ����ֱ��, “It’s questionable just how much they know about Al-Nassr or the Pro League.”
“He has been helpful in raising global awareness of Saudi football,” Chadwick, professor of Afro-Eurasian Sport at Emlyon Business School in Paris, said, “but there needs to be greater depth and more sustainable engagement in relations with fans.”
Wael Al-Fayez, the league’s chief commercial officer, says that is already happening.
“Last season, we reached a record 180 countries worldwide, up from 150 the year before,” Al Fayez said. “On the sponsorship side, international deals have surged by 200 percent, which reflects real, measurable growth. On social media, our following grew from 11 million to 15 million last season, with a 60 percent jump in engagement.”
Playing games overseas is another strategy. As Lau, the fan in Hong Kong, noted: “Media coverage here means it was impossible not to be aware of these matches.”
Attracting fans around the world, as major European clubs such as Real Madrid and Liverpool already do, is a long process.
“If Saudi clubs are to compete on the same basis, it will take decades to build a global fan base,” Chadwick said. “So they need to tell a different story to people. The likes of Al-Nassr and Al-Hilal need to give fans something that they can’t get elsewhere.”
Next goal
This could involve becoming Asia’s premier club team.
“Currently, there is no obvious candidate that qualifies as Asia’s No. 1 club or brand,” Chadwick said, “so why shouldn’t this be a Saudi club?”
Domination of Asian continental club competitions will help.
The investment in players has clearly increased standards. Three of the four semifinalists in last season’s Asian Champions League were from ����ֱ��, with Al-Ahli going on to win the title.
At the Club World Cup in August, Al-Hilal was the only Asian team to make a big impact, drawing with Real Madrid in the group stage and then defeating Manchester City 4-3 in the round of 16.
“The appetite for football globally is growing, and the Saudi Pro League is on its way to become the home of football outside Europe,” Al-Fayez said. “It’s been an incredible start to our journey, and the momentum is undeniable.”