After the second day of competition, Korean golfer A Lim Kim holds a one-stroke lead at the LPGA Tour's HSBC Women’s World Championship in Singapore — with New Zealand’s Lydia Ko, Korea’s Hyo Joo Kim, and the UK’s Charley Hull hot on her heels.

World No. 9 Hull kept pace in second after the first day of competition, but No. 3 Ko pulled ahead to sit one stroke behind No. 34 A Lim Kim after two days of play.

Meanwhile, No. 29 Hyo Joo Kim sliced seven strokes off her first-round performance to pull level with Hull in third place after a strong second round.

The USA's top contenders thus far are No. 69 Sarah Schmelzel and recently minted first-time LPGA champion No. 30 Yealimi Noh, both of whom currently sit one stroke behind Hull in a five-way tie for fifth place.

Elite LPGA golfers lock in on high-stakes battle

The field in Singapore features nine of the world’s Top-10 players and 13 of the Top 15, with the only top-ranked absences coming from US stars No. 1 Nelly Korda and No. 15 Rose Zhang.

Korda is sitting out the Asia leg of the LPGA Tour for the second year in a row. She will also miss the upcoming tournaments in Thailand and China before making a scheduled return at Arizona's Ford Championship in late March.

Korda’s absence hasn’t lightened the Women's World Championship competition, however, as the tournament’s $1.8 million purse remains in close contention halfway through the event's four rounds.

"I don’t think I typically play really well on this golf course and I thought this year would be a good year to kind of turn that around," reigning Olympic gold medalist Ko told reporters following the second round.

"The scores haven’t really been that low these past couple days," she added. "I'm just trying to focus on me and hopefully just keep climbing up the leaderboard."

How to watch the LPGA Tour at the Women's World Championship

The third round of the LPGA Tour's 2025 HSBC Women’s World Championship tees off at 8:30 PM ET on Friday, with live coverage on the Golf Channel.
 

US golf star Nelly Korda came out swinging this weekend, taking second place at the Tournament of Champions to launch her 2025 LPGA campaign.

The world No. 1 narrowly fell to tournament winner No. 35 A Lim Kim, with the South Korean standout picking up her third career LPGA win and her second since November 2024. Her 20-under-par result also marked her second straight win in which she never trailed at the end of any round.

Korda pulled within one stroke of Kim on the back nine, before the eventual champion surged ahead with three birdies in her last four holes. With her 7-under Sunday performance, Korda finished the tournament at an impressive 18-under.

The result marked Korda's fifth-straight Top 5 finish, a streak that dates back to last August's AIG Women's Open.

"This is what I love about golf — being in the hunt on a Sunday going down the back nine," an upbeat Korda told reporters after her final round. "I'm never going to complain finishing second in a tournament and giving it a run... There are definitely a couple putts I would like to have back, but overall I think I'm very happy with this week and excited for next week."

Next up: Korda's home course advantage

The LPGA next lands in Korda's hometown of Bradenton, Florida, for the Founders Cup, which tees off on Thursday.

That home course advantage, as well as the fact that Korda won the Drive On Championship on those links last season, makes her the tournament's unofficial favorite this year.

Fellow US star and world No. 14 Rose Zhang is the Founders Cup's defending champion, with her win snapping Korda's historic five-tournament win streak last year. That said, the 2024 edition took place at New Jersey's Upper Montclair Country Club, so the Florida relocation removes the course familiarity that would normally give the reigning title-holder an assumed edge.

Korda's preparation for the upcoming competition will be intentionally light, as she doesn't normally practice during tournament weeks.

"Definitely some areas where I feel like I need to kind of tighten up some loose ends," Korda said on Sunday. “Overall, I think I can’t complain about the state of my golf game right now.”

Unlike her jam-packed season start last year, this week's even will be Korda's last before a seven-week pause. She has opted out of three upcoming tournaments — the Honda LPGA Thailand, the HSBC Women's World Championship in Singapore, or the Blue Bay LPGA in China.

Korda will instead return to play at the end of March, when the Ford Championship tees off in Chandler, Arizona.