Claire Shin’s breakout home summer on the WPGA Tour of Australasia has continued in the opening round of The Navigate Advisors Wagga Wagga CC Pro-Am, where she co-leads with Soo Jin ‘Jenny’ Lee with 18 holes to play.

Offering up $50,000 in prizemoney and tremendously supported by the members of Wagga Wagga Country Club, many of whom are billeting players this week, the two-day event ends the WPGA Tour schedule for the first half of 2025.

Shin continued her form that saw her win The Athena last month on the opening day, with the Sydneysider tied at the top with Lee after the pair fired matching bogey-free opening rounds of 6-under 67.

Next best is Malaysia’s Liyana Azizan Durisic, one back of the leading pair on 5-under, while one of the stars last week’s World Sand Greens Championship, Thailand’s Cholcheva Wongras, sits fourth after her opening round of 4-under.

West Australian Kathryn Norris and Jordan O’Brien of Queensland rounding out the top-5 on 3-under and one ahead of Elmay Viking.

Only new to the professional ranks, Shin’s victory at the mix of skills and match play The Athena is just part of successful summer where she has made numerous cuts in Webex Players Series events, finished tied for 11^th at the ISPS HANDA Australian Open, in the top-10 at the Vic Open and shared 10^th in Binalong last week.

Starting her day on the par-5 16^th, Shin showed her intentions immediately with a birdie four, before making pars at 17 and 18 and then turning her attention to the front nine in the shotgun start.

The St Michael’s Golf Club member continuing to press in the afternoon side of the draw, which produced all of the top scores in Round 1, by birdieing the second and third, before adding two more at the fifth and six holes.

“Today wasn't too bad. Stayed on the fairway the whole round … some birdie putts,” Shin said.

Recording seven consecutive pars from seventh, Shin finally found her birdie form again with her sixth and final of the day coming at the par-3 14^th where the John Serhan coached player nearly hit one of her best shots of the day from 135 metres.

“I nearly had a hole in one, but it was at least 30 centimetres from the hole,” Shin, who closed her round with a par at the short par-5 15^th said..

“I got that for a birdie, so I think that was my highlight of the day.”

It was a similar story of consistent birdie making and a lack of errors for her fellow New South Wales representative Lee, who started her day on the seventh and made her first birdie of the day on the very next hole.

Playing sparingly on the Epson Tour in recent years, Lee closed out the back nine with three birdies in four holes from the 14^th before finishing her round with two more shots against par via two birdies in her last three holes to equal Shin’s mark.

Once again played with a shotgun start, leaders Shin and Lee will play in the same group for Friday’s final round, with the last group off at 12:53pm AEDT and live scoring available on the WPGA Tour of Australasia website.