Still in the hunt
Ko blows hot and cold in US
Lydia Ko has blown hot and cold in the second round of her LPGA Championship tilt at Olympia Fields, but nevertheless sits just three shots off the top of the leaderboard.
The 20-year-old Kiwi finished her second round with a 3-under par 68 yesterday (New Zealand time) to be well-placed at 4-under par.
Starting the day at 1-under, Ko scorched through her first seven holes with a quartet of birdies before collapsing to hit three bogeys in the next four holes — all of which were par-fours. However, the Korean-born Aucklander steadied late on to pinch two more birdies in the final three holes and round out the day on a high.
She sits in equal 10th place, three shots off American Danielle Kang and South Koreans Sei Young Kim and Chella Choi, with Choi yet to close out her second round.
California-born Kang, a first generation American of Korean descent, is still seeking her first LPGA victory at the age of 24, though her progress has been halted by injury.
Playing with her left wrist heavily strapped after suffering a fracture last year, she described her condition as “playable”.
“As long as doctors give me the green light, I don’t think about it,” said Kang, whose hobbies include playing the piano and saxophone.
“All the doctors, they ask: ‘How is it?’ and I say pain is mental. So if I don’t acknowledge it, it will just go away.”
Kang said her bogeyfree round was set up by good approach shots.
“I kept sticking to the iron shots that I trusted all my life. My day was really relaxing. It was stressful but relaxing. I kept giving myself birdie opportunities.”
Elsewhere, the world No 3 Ko’s rankings rivals Ryu SoYeon and Ariya Jutanugarn had solid days on the course.
Ryu is two shots off the leaders on 5-under par, while Jutanugarn has recovered from a horror first round 77 to be 3-over par after 13 holes of her second round. She still sits outside the projected cut line. South Korean Ryu and Thai Jutanugarn usurped Ko in the women’s rankings this month, pushing her down to third. She was on top of the rankings for 85 straight weeks until her mid-June demotion, the third-longest stint as No 1 in LPGA history.
Ko finished 25th in last weekend’s LPGA tournament in Arkansas, and hasn’t won a tour event since July last year. “Some of the other girls are playing at such great standards, and this is a new week — every day’s a new day,” Ko said on Wednesday. “I’m thinking more about how can I be consistent and stay in contention.”