Only nightfall could slow down South Korea’s Jang Ha-na, who had seven birdies in 11 holes on Friday to seize the lead when darkness halted the second round of the LPGA Founders Cup.
Jang was 11-under for the tournament, inching ahead of clubhouse leader Kim Hyo-joo, who carded a three-under 69 in the second round for a 10-under total of 134.
Stacy Lewis, who led by one when the first round was completed earlier Friday, managed a one-under 71 in the second round to share third place on nine-under 135.
Photo: AFP
Kim Kaufman, who was three-under par through 12 holes of her second round at Wildfire Golf Club was also nine-under for the tournament.
France’s Karine Icher (70) and South Koreans Lee Mi-hyang (66) and Lee Il-hee (67) were tied for fifth on eight-under 136.
Defending champion Karrie Webb posted a second-round 70 to head a group of four players to complete two rounds at seven-under 137.
Seven more players, including world No. 1 Lydia Ko, were still on the course at seven-under when play was halted.
New Zealand’s Ko held a share of the clubhouse lead when the first round was suspended on Thursday night. The tournament had fallen behind because of a four-hour weather delay on Thursday morning.
Ko was overtaken by Lewis, who had nine birdies in her eight-under first-round effort.
Lewis said she could not be too disappointed that she did not continue that torrid pace.
“I made nine birdies — it’s always hard to follow that,” she said.
For clubhouse leader Kim, it was a long day. She played the last 12 holes of a first-round 65, then had four birdies and one bogey in her second-round 69.
“Last night I was worried about doing 30 holes,” Kim said, but added it was not as difficult as she had feared.
Taiwan’s Candie Kung hit a one-over 73 to drop eight places to be tied for 118th with a three-over 147 total.
Additional reporting by staff writer
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier