World No. 1 female golfer Yani Tseng on Friday failed to advance to the last two rounds at the 2012 Evian Masters in Evian-Les-Bains, France after scoring a total 3-over par 147 in the first two rounds.
The Taiwanese golf ace finished one-under par on the second day of the tournament being presented by Societe Generale and which was to end yesterday. However, she scored a 4-over par in the opening round, leaving a big gap that needed double the effort to bridge. With one pole higher than the 146 needed to be able to play in the third round, Tseng had to bid farewell to the French tournament.
Taiwan’s other golfers at the event, Candie Kung and Amy Hung, were unable to make it to the third round.
Tseng, who has struggled in the past few tournaments, only reached the 50th place in the US Women’s Open. In a pre-tournament interview for the Evian Masters, Tseng said she felt pressure on the course.
“I [was] kind of thinking too much and trying too hard to play well like I did before,” she said.
Following a good year last year, Tseng has won three competitions, earning more than US$1 million, so far this year.
However, over the past month, things have not been coming quite as easily as they did last year for the star player.
Tseng finished 59th at Wegmans LPGA in New York and then got cut at Walmart NW Arkansas Championship.
Nevertheless, she said she will get better every time.
“I have a good team behind me to helping out those things,” she said. “I still have lots of passion.”
American Stacy Lewis hit a 3-under par 69 in the second round of the Evian Masters on Friday to keep the overall lead at 12 under, one shot ahead of South Korea’s Lee Il-hee.
On Thursday, Lewis had nine birdies, including seven in a row, for a 9-under — which was good enough to match three-time champion Helen Alfredsson’s tournament record round, set by the Swede in 2008.
Lewis looked like picking up where she left off with a birdie on holes four and an eagle on seven. However, then her frustration began to show and she made bogeys on 12 and 14.
“Today was actually a little bit of a struggle for me. I wasn’t really sure how I would play coming off a good score yesterday,” said Lewis, who is chasing her third US LPGA Tour title of the year. “It’s hard when you make pars and you feel like you’re going backwards because of all the birdies I made yesterday.”
Fellow American Paula Creamer, the 2005 Evian champion, and former US Women’s Open champion Park In-bee are both in contention, three shots behind Lewis.
Park, who at the age of 19 was the youngest winner of the US Open in 2008, had the round of the day with eight birdies for an 8 under 64.
Lewis recovered to make birdies on 15 and 18 and just did enough to regain the lead from Lee, who was three shots behind Lewis overnight.
“You have to make birdies here. You can’t try and force it though — that’s the hard part,” Lewis said. “You want to try and birdie every hole, but that’s usually when you get in trouble. So it’s just staying patient out there, climbing up that leaderboard.”
While Lewis’ form started to dip, Lee’s was peaking as she hit four straight birdies on the back nine to post a 5-under 67.
“My putting feels really good this week. And [also] in the last tournament, in the US Open, that makes me more confident,” said Lee, who tied for fourth place at the US Open three weeks ago. “So everything is getting better, I think.”
Creamer hit five birdies for a 5-under 67.
“I only missed two greens today, which is a lot better than yesterday,” Creamer said. “One of my strengths in my game is irons and just giving myself opportunities, and today I kind of took advantage of that and made some good putts.”
Japan’s Mika Miyazato is in fifth place at 8-under, with three players tied for sixth spot.
They include South Korea’s Park Hee-young, who was two shots behind Lewis overnight after using a belly putter for the first time in her career. She looked to be maintaining her challenge when she made three birdies to move to 10-under, but then her putting fell apart with bogeys on holes 13, 14, 16 and 17.
Defending champion Ai Miyazato made some ground up with three birdies on the first six holes, but she was undone by two subsequent bogeys and finished with a 2-under 70. The two-time champion from Japan sits nine shots off the lead. While the first two rounds were played in bright sunshine and high temperatures, storms were forecast for yesterday’s third round.
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