Eagle helps Ko fly near the leader
LYDIA Ko remains four shots off the lead at the ANA Inspiration in California following a ‘‘rollercoaster’’ second round.
The Kiwi golfer carded an eagle on the par-five 11th hole – after a whopping 290m drive downwind, but struggled with consistency at the Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage yesterday.
She combined the eagle and five birdies with four bogeys to card a three-under 69 to improve one position at the first major of the year.
Ko, the 2016 ANA Inspiration champion, is in a six-way tie for sixth at five-under, four shots behind leader, Thailand’s Patty Tavatanakit.
‘‘I’ve been on this rollercoaster since last week,’’ Ko said. ‘‘The good thing is I’m making plenty of birdies to make up for the bogeys I’ve been making.
‘‘But I think I’ve been trying to not get too in my head when I’ve been making mistakes. You know, just trying to stay positive and go, hey, if I have nine holes left I have nine chances for birdie.
‘‘I’ve been lucky enough to kind of have a good comeback after a mistake which kind of gets rhythm going.
‘‘Lots of birdie-bogeys or bogey-birdies, but hopefully I’ll be able to reduce a few of those clumsier mistakes and keep having fun out there.’’
Ko was one-over for her round when she strode to the 11th hole, the eagle kick-starting an impressive back nine.
‘‘I’ve been hitting my drive OK, and then I hit a few stinky shots in my last few holes of the front nine. So I was like, ‘you know what, this wind is off the right and down. I’m going to aim right and hit it hard’.
‘‘Les [caddie] said, ‘hey, you hit
it 318 (yards), so I was super excited about that. I kind of hit an iffy hybrid shot, but ended up working. Hit it to 15 feet and was probably the closest I could hit to that hole and was able to make that putt.
‘‘So definitely going from over par, that kind of changes the rhythm for me, and then making the birdie on the next hole. It’s a major. It’s not easy out there. So you just have to keep going and hit one shot at a time and see where that takes me.’’