South Korea’s Ko Jin-young yesterday extended her lead to three shots at the Australian Women’s Open at Kooyonga as former world No. 1 Lydia Ko drifted down the leaderboard.
Ko Jin-young, 22, carded a three-under 69 in morning conditions to go with her first-round 65 to be at 10-under 134 as the afternoon players battled in the sea breeze.
The closest at seven-under was LPGA Tour rookie Emma Talley of the US, who had a second-round 69, also taking advantage of the benign morning conditions.
Photo: EPA
Two major winners, Shin Ji-yai, who momentarily held the lead when she birdied the first three holes, and Yoo Sun-young were joint third at six-under.
World No. 20 Ko Jin-young, who logged 14 birdies in her opening two rounds, was by far the best player over the first two days.
She had started poorly, dropping shots at her first two holes, the 10th and 11th, and losing the lead to compatriot Shin, but she lit up the front nine, birdieing the first three holes from the par-five first, each time hitting it close, and regaining control of the tournament.
“Yes, I like this course style,” said Ko Jin-young, who has won 10 tournaments in South Korea and 14 overall. “[South] Korean courses [are] more long hit and narrow, and then [I] have to get longer distance and then straight shots, but here is wider, so [the] stress is less.”
A few of the big names remain in the pack.
The past two Australian Open winners, Japan’s Haru Nomura and South Korean Jang Ha-na, were both at three-under, along with the Thai sisters Ariya and Moriya Jutanugarn, while world No. 9 Cristie Kerr was at one-under along with Taiwan’s Chien Pei-yun.
Fellow Taiwanese Hsu Wei-ling was on one-over after a 72, while former world No. 1 Yani Tseng was a shot further back.
World No. 3 Ryu So-yeon faded with a 75 to be even-par overall.
New Zealand’s former world No. 1 Lydia Ko made a run, getting to six-under, but then strung four consecutive bogeys together on the back nine to fall off the leaderboard, finishing at two-under.
Among those to have the weekend off were Canadian Brooke Henderson, Cheyenne Woods and Mel Reid, as well as Sweden’s Caroline Hedwall, who followed a 68 with a disastrous 82.
Taiwanese amateurs Tseng Tsai-ching, Lu Hsin-yu, Lin Tze-han, An Ho-yu and Yu Han-hsuan also missed the cut, which was set at three-over.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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