Helen Alfredsson shot a 67 to take a one-stroke lead after the second round of the Safeway Classic at Columbia Edgewater Country Club on Saturday.
Alfredsson matched her first round of 67 for a 10-under 134, one stroke ahead of Sophie Gustafson, who shot 68.
Three strokes behind Alfredsson in third place at 137 were Paula Creamer (68) and Kelli Kuehne (70).
Lorena Ochoa and first-round leader Angela Park were in a group five shots back. Annika Sorenstam rebounded from a first-round 72 to shoot 68, putting her among nine players at 140.
Alfredsson said this season rates as the best of her career.
“I think I’ve been striking it much, much better, and I think with a little more confidence,” she said.
Alfredsson contrasted her play this year to another thriving era of her career, when she turned professional in 1989 and played on the European Tour. Back then, Alfredsson said she played with no fear.
“The problem is when you go through slumps,” she said. “You know that the trees are not 99 percent air, for example, which you think when you’re young. And you do get bad lies, which you never do when you’re younger it seems like. But yeah, I’m enjoying this.”
She made six birdies — four on the front nine and three with putts of seven feet or less — and one bogey in the second round.
Alfredsson finished her round by holing a 15-foot birdie putt at the par-four, 383-yard 18th.
She made her only bogey of the tournament at the par-five, 462-yard seventh, though it was unconventional. Alfredsson drove her tee shot out of bounds, then used her next two shots to get to within three feet of the hole. She missed the putt, and settled for a bogey.
Gustafson reached as low as 11-under until she made back-to-back bogeys at 16 and 17, her first two of the tournament. She ran off a string of four consecutive birdies early in the round on the way to recording a four-under 32 on the front nine.
The cut was even-par 144. Among those failing to qualify for yesterday’s final round included rookie of the year points leader Yani Tseng (145) of Taiwan.
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