Sun, Jul 20, 2008 page19

• Kim clings to lead as Wie makes a charge

  • AFP
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  US player Christina Kim fired a four-under 68 to hang on to a one-shot lead in the LPGA State Farm Classic, with teenager Michelle Wie in hot pursuit.

  Kim, seeking her third career title, had five birdies and just one bogey after her bogey-free round that featured seven birdies and an eagle on Thursday, for a halfway total of 131.

  Kim admitted that it was hard to follow up her sparkling first-round effort.

  

  Christina Kim watches her second shot on the sixth hole at the State Farm Classic at Panther Creek Country Club in Springfield, Illinois, on Friday.

  PHOTO: AFP

  “Today was just personally quite a struggle,” she said. “Yesterday’s round just seemed to happened it seamlessly. I would just blink and the ball would fall in.”

  “Today it seemed like the combination of slightly more difficult pins along with knowing that I shot nine-under, which is always hard to follow up on. I just hung in there and only had one bogey in 36 holes. I’m quite pleased with that,” Kim said.

  Wie, 18, fired a seven-under 65 as she joined a quartet of players sharing second place on 132.

  Taiwan’s Yani Tseng, Sherri Turner and South Korea’s Oh Ji-young were also one adrift, all having posted their second straight six-under 66s.

  Wie, who had seven top-10 finishes in major championships before she was 17 years old, is attempting a return to form.

  Her round included five birdies and an eagle.

  Playing in her sixth LPGA tournament of the season, Wie made her push on the tournament’s second day by cutting into a four-stroke deficit with some stellar iron play.

  The Hawaiian, who has struggled since breaking her wrist 18 months ago, holed a sand wedge from 85 yards for eagle at the par-four 10th.

  Defending champion Sherri Steinhauer, who went wire-to-wire last year to edge Kim by one stroke, struggled early on Thursday and missed the cut.

  ■US BANK

  AFP, MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN

  Nick Flanagan joined Sweden’s Richard Johnson atop the US Bank Championship leaderboard on Friday as the US$4 million tournament hit the halfway stage.

  Australia’s Flanagan fired a seven-under-par 63 to seize a share of the lead alongside overnight leader Johnson on 10-under 130.

  Flanagan teed off at 10, and finished his round without a bogey. He nabbed his first birdie at 15, the picked up three in a row from the 17th.

  He capped the round with his seventh birdie of the day at No. 9.

  “I didn’t really mis-hit a shot in my first five holes, either,” Flanagan said. “Just middle of greens and a couple of putts that lipped out. For once, stayed patient and knew I had a couple of easy — well, easier — par-fours and par-fives to come in and got through that with a couple more birdies. Then just really, really well on the back.”

  Johnson, who posted a 63 on Thursday, also started on the back nine and collected four birdies against one bogey en route to a three-under 67.

  “I played better today, actually, than I did yesterday,” Johnson said. “I just didn’t get that many putts to drop today. It was really nice to go out today and feel that you can still shoot a low round when you played well yesterday.”

  One stroke behind Johnson and Flanagan at 131 is the duo of Kent Jones and Aussie Gavin Coles.

  Jones carded a five-under 65, that included six birdies and a bogey at the par-three fifth.

  The American played his best golf after the turn, with birdies at 10 and 13 and back-to-back birdies to close the round.

  Coles enjoyed a career-best effort, carding a bogey-free eight-under 62. The 39-year-old, who started on the back nine, opened with a birdie and nabbed three more from the 13th and another at 18.

  “Today, the putter decided it would behave itself,” Coles said. “It found the hole a few times, and consequently, I made a few birdies. I’m not hitting it a long way away from the flag, either. I’m hitting it close a fair few times. It’s nice.”

  Within reach of his previous best round of 64, which he most recently recorded at the Stanford St. Jude Championship in June, Coles improved on it with three birdies coming in.

  “It seems strange to have only made 116 feet worth of putts, and then you go through it and I feel like I made a bunch,” Coles said.
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