Late birdie run sends Sei Young Kim to Women’s PGA lead

NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. — Sei Young Kim birdied five of the final six holes as darkness fell Friday at Aronimink for a 5-under 65 and the second-round lead in the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.

The 27-year-old South Korean closed with a 6under 29 on the front nine. She dropped early strokes on Nos. 11 and 12 and made her lone first-nine birdie on the par-5 16th.

Kim had a 4-under 136 total at rugged 6,437-yard Aronimink. She tied Karrie Webb (2001) and Sarah Kemp (2011) for the lowest nine-hole score in the Women’s PGA Championship.

A 10-time LPGA Tour winner, Kim is looking for her first major victory. She was runner-up at the 2015 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship and tied for second at the Evian Championship in 2018.

The last four winners of the tournament either led or co-led after 36 holes.

Jennifer Kupcho (65), Danielle Kang (69), Carlota Ciganda (69) and Anna Nordqvist (68) were a stroke back.

PGA: Patrick Cantlay has played the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open so well that he wasn’t the least bit concerned when he was stuck in neutral. Four straight birdies later, he was right up at the top again.

Cantlay ran off four straight birdies at the midway point of his round and got up-and-down from a bunker on the par-5 ninth to cap off a 6-under 65 and be part of a five-way for the lead going into the weekend in Las Vegas.

Martin Laird hit his second shot into 4 feet for eagle on his closing hole at the ninth for a 63. Peter Malnati, runner-up last week in Mississippi, made a 15-footer for eagle from the fringe on No. 9 to close out his 62.

They joined Cantlay at

14-under 128, along with Brian Harman (63) and Austin Cook (65). U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau, who opened with a 62, was one shot behind.

Sergio Garcia (64) and the resurgent Stewart Cink (63), who began the new season by winning the Safeway Open for his first title since he won the British Open at Turnberry in 2009, were among those two shots behind.

EUROPEAN TOUR: Matt Fitzpatrick threw away the outright second-round lead on his last hole at the BMW PGA Championship in Virginia Water, England. Fitzpatrick was 9 under through 17 holes and enjoying one of the great rounds on Wentworth’s storied West Course when he sent his approach at No. 8 left.

The ball went into the trees, rebounded out, and dropped into the water.

He wound up with a double-bogey 6 for a 7-under 65, leaving him tied for the lead with Shane Lowry (65) at

12-under overall at the European Tour’s signature event.

The co-leaders, who went out in the morning and enjoyed the best conditions of the day, were a stroke clear of Tyrrell Hatton, who recovered from a bogey at No. 1 to shoot six birdies and a 67.

Patrick Reed, the American who leads the Race to Dubai standings with five more regular tour events left in the pandemic-affected season, shot 68 and was 6 under overall, six strokes behind Lowry and Fitzpatrick.