Lucy Li hit a shot she will never forget on Thursday in the first round of the BMW Ladies Championship.

The 23-year-old stepped up to her tee ball on the par-3 13th hole at Pine Beach Golf Links, what was only her fourth hole of the day, and proceeded to dunk it from 155 yards with a 7-iron to record the first hole-in-one of her LPGA Tour career. But what made the moment she shared with her groupmates, Robyn Choi and Soomin Oh, and her caddie, John Pavelko, even more exhilarating was the prize she received for the ace – a brand-new BMW i7 car, courtesy of BMW Korea.

“It was a good number into the wind. Hit it right at the pin. Thought it might end up a little short, but it went in,” Li said. “I just started freaking out. I was like, ‘This is the hole-in-one hole.’ I've been complaining all week to my caddie about having not holed out this year. The whole week I was like, ‘I haven't holed out this year. I haven't holed out since Blue Bay.’

“I was complaining to him and everyone. I was like, ‘I think I'm due a hole-in-one.’ It was nice to get one there.”

The ace was part of a 4-under 68 that Li posted in the opening round in the Republic of Korea. She made one birdie on the par-5 17th hole after her hole-in-one to turn in 3-under and then ripped off three straight birdies on the par-4 4th, par-4 5th and par-5 6th holes on her closing nine to move to 6-under.

However, a late double bogey on her last hole of the round dropped the Epson Tour graduate back to 4-under, leaving Li six shots behind 18-hole leader Sei Young Kim in a tie for 22nd with 10 other athletes.

Pine Beach Golf Links is a new venue for the LPGA Tour this season, as the BMW Ladies Championship has never before been held at this property, but through one round, Li seems to have adjusted to both the conditions and that unfamiliarity quite nicely and can see what American property this Korean facility is trying to emulate.

“(Pebble Beach is) definitely what they are going for with the par 3s,” Li said. “Fifteen is really pretty, and 16 is really pretty. Also, eight is really pretty. It definitely reminds me of California a little bit. This is a really beautiful golf course. Excited to be out here. It's in good condition. It's windy, which I like.”

In addition to the vehicle she won with her hole-in-one in the first round of the BMW Ladies Championship, CME Group will also make a $20,000 donation on Li’s behalf to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital as part of their CME Group Cares Challenge – Score 1 for St. Jude campaign.

The Challenge is a season-long charitable giving program that provides financial support for childhood cancer treatment and research, and is something that Li is proud she has the opportunity to contribute to as a result of her hole-in-one at Pine Beach.

“That's really awesome,” she said. “I'm so excited that one of my swings can do something for this world, so that's really awesome.”

The BMW Ladies Championship is Li’s 22nd event of the 2025 LPGA Tour season, and while she has fared pretty well so far this year, making 15 cuts and tallying four top-20 results, one of which is a tie for 12th that came at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, she is still on the outside looking in when it comes to securing a berth in the CME Group Tour Championship next month.

The Epson Tour winner entered this week in the Republic of Korea at 69th in the Race to the CME Globe, nine spots out of the top-60 cutoff that’s used to decide the field for the season finale at Tiburón Golf Club in November. A strong performance this week in this limited-field event would go a long way in moving Li up the point standings, making her next two scheduled starts at the Maybank Championship and the TOTO Japan Classic a bit less stressful for the 23-year-old.

But even if she doesn’t make a sizable dent in that deficit over the next 54 holes at Pine Beach Golf Links, Li can still take a lot of solace in the fact that not only did she get her long-awaited hole out at near-perfect timing, she also won a shiny new car while doing so.

Lucy Li Makes 18th Ace of 2025, Wins Car in First Round of BMW Ladies Championship

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