Sumi Lee produces the best round of her career to lead off the LPGA Season Finals

South Korea’s Somi Lee shot a career-best eight-under-par 64 to open a two-point lead in the first round of the LPGA’s lucrative season-ending CME Group Tour Championship.

The 26-year-old made four birdies on the front nine and three more on the back nine – plus an eagle on the 17th – with the only blemish on her scorecard coming with a bogey on the 18th.

“It’s an honor to play my first tournament on the Tour and I don’t think I was necessarily in a position to be nervous about anything,” Lee said.

“I told myself whatever the result or the way I play, let’s get ready for next year’s season. I think this took the pressure off today’s round so I can get a better result.”

American Alisin Corpuz is six, while world number one and defending champion Gino Theticul, who tops the CME Globe Race to the Rankings, is one of four players back at five-under.

Germany’s Esther Henselet and Sweden’s Madeleine Sagstrom on Thursday finished tied for seventh at four under par and are the two highest-placed European players in the 60-player field at Florida’s Tiburon Golf Club, which contains 28 of the 29 winners from this season.

England’s Charlie Hall, who won this tournament in 2016, dropped five birdies but a double bogey on the 10th halted her progress and she eventually sat on 69 under par.

Compatriot Lottie Wade was second under two, while world number two Nelly Korda recovered from back-to-back bogeys on the second and third holes to take first place as she bids for her first win of the campaign.

The final event of the season for the LPGA carries a total purse of $11 million (£8.4 million).

The $4 million (£3.1 million) jackpot is the largest winner’s check in women’s golf and the third-largest in golf after the Men’s Tour Championship ($10 million/£7.6 million) and The Players Championship ($4.5 million/£3.4 million).