Germany’s Sandra Gal eagled the final hole on Friday to claim a one-shot lead after the first round of the US$1.8 million LPGA event at Pinnacle Country Club.
Gal fired a seven-under 64 to put herself in the driver’s seat in the 54-hole event.
Her 15-foot uphill putt at the final hole saw her leap over South Korea’s Kim Song-hee and into the lead.
PHOTO: AFP
Gal had about 190 yards to the front of the green at 18, and hit a four-iron in.
Gal had already drained a 20-foot birdie putt at the third and a 25-foot birdie putt at 15.
Kim had sole possession of second place on 65, while Americans Brittany Lang, Pat Hurst and Angela Stanford shared third, a further shot back.
Taiwan’s Teresa Lu and Yani Tseng shot three-under 68 to be tied for 12th place, while Candie Kung carded an even-par 71 and Amy Hung a one-over 72.
Gal, who played golf for the University of Florida, is in search of her first LPGA Tour win.
The 24-year-old led the Women’s British Open this year after the first round, but ballooned to an 80 in the second and finished tied for 33rd.
Kim finished with back-to-back birdies to move briefly to the top of the leaderboard.
Her performance came a week after an up-and-down effort in Canada that included a round of 62 as well as one of 77 en route to a tie for 10th place.
Cristie Kerr, the leader of the money list, carded a 69, as did Michelle Wie of the US.
Defending champion Lee Seon-hwa of South Korea settled for a 74 on the recently renovated course.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY STAFF WRITER
■BMW CHAMPIONSHIP
AFP, CHICAGO
Tiger Woods seized a share of the halfway lead at the BMW Championship on Friday with a four-under 67 that put him alongside Mark Wilson on seven-under 135.
Wilson, who lives in Chicago, fired a second-round 66 to claim his share of the lead with Woods, who is a four-time winner at Cog Hill.
The two were one shot in front of a quartet of players — Ireland’s Padraig Harrington, Australian Marc Leishman, South African Rory Sabbatini and Bo Van Pelt of the US.
Harrington posted his second straight 68, Leishman and Van Pelt both posted 69s, while overnight joint leader Sabbatini posted a 70 for 136.
Woods opened with a bogey, but twice saved par from bunkers in the early going to keep his round on track, before notching three birdies in a row from the seventh.
Wilson birdied his final hole to join Woods atop the leaderboard at a course where he practices regularly.
“This summer when I’ve been home, I’ve been primarily coming out here because I thought it made sense to get ready to see the new golf course,” Wilson said of the layout renovated by Rees Jones.
The leaders will be paired together for the first time since their championship match in the 1992 US Junior Amateur, which Woods won.
“We go back a long way,” Woods said.
The US$7.5 million tournament is the third event in the US PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup playoff series.
The field includes the top 70 in the playoff points list, but only 30 will advance to the Tour Championship in two weeks, where the playoff series winner will be crowned.
■MERCEDES-BENZ
AFP, COLOGNE, GERMANY
England’s Chris Wood and Scott Strange of Australia shared a one-shot lead at the halfway point of the Mercedes-Benz Championship on Friday after overnight leader Soren Hansen carded a double-bogey on the last hole.
Wood, who was third at The Open at Turnberry in July, hit a second-round 69 to be nine-under for the tournament, while Strange carded a 68. Hansen’s 71 dropped him into a tie for third with South African James Kingston and England’s Ross Fisher.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
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