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  HONOLULU: Youmin Hwang played in the final group off the first tee Thursday in the second round of the LOTTE Championship. She’ll do it again Friday after shooting a 10-under 62, the best round in the four years the tournament has been played at Hoakalei Country Club.

Hwang opened eagle-birdie, dropped a stroke on the fourth and had eight more birdies to get to 15-under 129 and open a three-stroke lead with two rounds left. Playing on a sponsor invitation, the 22-year-old South Korean player has two victories on the Korean LPGA.

“First of all, I broke my life-best score,” Hwang said. “At the same time, I broke the course record, so I feel very good.”

Hwang matched the tournament record of 62 set by Lizette Salas in the 2013 final round and Cristie Kerr in the 2017 third round, both at Ko Olina Golf Course.

“I feel very different about the course, first, especially the grass type,” Hwang said. “It’s very different to Korea and play in Korea LPGA.”

First-round leader Akie Iwai of Japan followed her opening 64 with a 68 in the afternoon session to join American Jessica Porvasnik (65) at 12 under.

“Feel like little difference, specific on the green,” Iwai said. “Getting hard to see the line.”

Porvasnik played in the first group of the day of the first tee. She’s a 30-year-old LPGA Tour rookie after finishing fourth last year in the Epson Tour standings.

“I just hit a lot of fairways, a lot of greens, gave myself a lot of great looks, and made a few of those,” said Porvasnik, a former Ohio State player.

Iwai played in a group with twin sister Chizato, who was 8 under after a 66. The 23-year-old Japanese sisters have each won this year as tour rookies. Chizato broke through at Mayakoba in Mexico in May, and Akie won the Portland Classic in August.

Nasa Hataoka of Japan and Gabriela Ruffels of Australia each shot 69 to get to 10 under.

Second-ranked Nelly Korda was 8 under after a 67 in the morning.

“The main difference between today and yesterday was just the putts dropped,” Korda said. “It was a little gustier out there today versus yesterday, so it was fun to play in, kind of show my creative side.”

Coming off a seven-victory season, Korda hasn’t won this year and has lost her No. 1 ranking to Jeeno Thitikul. The tour has had a different winner in all 24 of its official tournaments this year.

Charley Hull, playing alongside Korda, was 7 under after a 68. Hull won the Kroger Queen City Championship three weeks ago in Ohio after Thitikul four-putted the final hole.

“Just played pretty solid golf,” Henderson said. “I found the greens kind of a bit slow, so kind of hard to get used to the pace because you just feel like you have to bash the putts.”

Brooke Henderson, the 2018 and 2019 winner at Ko Olina, was 4 under after her second 70.

Defending champion A Lim Kim was 4 under after a 74.

After the event, the LPGA heads to Asia for tournaments five straight weeks in Shanghai, South Korea, Malaysia and Japan.

NEW YORK: Going into the playoffs without a couple of their best young players and two starters, the depth-depleted Boston Red Sox turned to a rookie with four games of major league experience to pitch on the road in a winner-take-all situation.
Connelly Early handled the stage plenty well until his defense let him down and the New York Yankees’ bats wore him down, eliminating Boston by winning Game 3 of the AL Wild Card Series 4-0 on Thursday night. The Red Sox became the first team to lose in the best-of-three round after winning Game 1 since the expanded format came into existence in 2022.
Not having right-handers Lucas Giolito and Tanner Houck available and losing Marcelo Mayer and Roman Anthony to season-ending injuries put them at a disadvantage going on the road at Yankee Stadium. Still, the Red Sox got a gem from Garrett Crochet and a clutch hit by Masataka Yoshida to win the opener and had chances to sweep, even after manager Alex Cora pulled Game 2 starter Brayan Bello after 2 1/2 innings for bullpen roulette, which eventually backfired.
Early went further, getting through three without allowing a run before one of the culprits from the regular season came back to haunt Boston in the fourth.
Center fielder Ceddanne Rafaela, right fielder Wilyer Abreu and second baseman Romy Gonzalez converged on a fly ball by leadoff hitter Cody Bellinger and let it fall between them for a double. Down 2-0 after a walk and three singles, Nathaniel Lowe couldn’t field a grounder to first and two more runs scored to make it a 4-0 deficit.
The Red Sox led the majors with 116 errors, 17 more than any team other than big league-worst Colorado. The Yankees were charged with one for dropping a pop fly in foul territory, but third baseman Ryan McMahon’s falling-into-the-visiting-dugout catch and other sound defensive plays behind rolling rookie Cam Schlittler ensured Boston never had a quality chance to get back into the game.
Just getting to the playoffs, the Red Sox exceeded expectations, especially following the mid-June trade of Rafael Devers to San Francisco. They were 37-36 at the time and won 52 of 89 games down the stretch to qualify.
That included season-long domination of their biggest rival, winning 10 of 14 gamest against the Yankees, who they had also turned the historical tables on in October since just after the turn of the century. Boston had beaten New York in eight of 10 playoff games dating to overcoming a 3-0 AL Championship Series deficit in 2004 on the way to winning the franchise’s first World Series since 1918.