Minjee Lee trailing Brooke Henderson after second spherical

“To maintain the momentum going, I’d higher have some extra.”

Earlier than Lee started to make belated headway in her second spherical, Australia’s star performer, comfortably, was the LPGA Tour stalwart Sarah Kemp, whose four-under 68 leaves her in joint-Sixteenth place at midway, at six underneath for the match.

World No.2 Lee, who’s been in nice type having additionally annexed the Ladies’s US Open title final month, was left pissed off for a lot of the day as she tried to play catch-up after her opening one-under 70.

She even seemed as if she is perhaps in for a battle simply to make the level-par minimize as she went by means of the primary 16 holes in one-over, three bogeys offsetting two birdies. However after recording a disappointing 5 bogeys over the 2 days, she produced a terrific end, birdieing the par-four seventeenth earlier than a nice strategy to the par-five 18th was adopted by her sinking a nine-metre eagle putt.

Perth’s Hannah Inexperienced, the 2019 Ladies’s PGA champ, made certain of her weekend spot, recording a three-under 68 which leaves her at two underneath.

Sydney’s Steph Kyriacou additionally made it with an even-par 71 placing her one underneath general, however Victoria’s Su Oh missed the minimize at five-over.

There might solely be one participant inside 4 pictures of Henderson however the Canadian gained’t really feel comfy that her nearest pursuer is the Olympic champion Korda who, like Lee, completed birdie-eagle on Friday.

“I used to be hitting strong pictures [but] I wasn’t hitting it nearly as good as [Thursday],” former world No.1 Korda stated. “… lastly acquired happening 11 and form of kick-started my day slightly.”

AAP

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Lee’s troublesome first spherical at Evian

Minjee Lee has her work minimize out to efficiently defend her Evian Championship title after failing to money in a gap spherical birdie-fest within the French main.

The Australian star, at present the shape participant within the ladies’s recreation, finds herself already having to play catch-up as she seeks her third main crown following her first-round, one-under-par 70 on Thursday.

It wasn’t a foul spherical by any means, but it surely’s left the Perth participant already seven pictures off the red-hot tempo being set by Japan’s Ayaka Furue, whose eight-under-par 63 featured 9 birdies.

However regardless of alternatives, she then had a irritating wait to make one other birdie till the eleventh, which was sandwiched by bogeys at each the tenth and twelfth.

One other birdie on the seventeenth a minimum of acquired her rating into the pink, however Lee’s complete left her solely in a tie for thirty ninth by the top of the day after her rivals all made hay.

Brooke Henderson, the 2016 Ladies’s PGA champ, and US Olympic champion Nelly Korda each shot seven-under 64s to sit down simply behind the rising Japanese 22-year-old Furue.

American Cheyenne Knight was one behind on 65, with Korean world No.1 Jin Younger Ko and New Zealand’s two-time main winner Lydia Ko amongst a gaggle of 5 who recorded 66s.

Gee Chun, who gained the Ladies’s PGA final month, was one other sturdy starter, mendacity in a tie for tenth at 4 underneath.

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The centre of consideration, as so typically, was Korda, the previous world No.1 who continued her spectacular comeback after day trip following surgical procedure on a blood clot in her arm.

That is her fifth occasion since returning to motion a month in the past and her bogey-free spherical, which featured seven birdies, left her smiling.

She even had a dip within the water when her strategy shot on the par-five 18th – her ninth of the day – rolled down a financial institution on the entrance proper of the inexperienced into the sting of a lake.

Judging it attainable to splash it out, Korda eliminated her sneakers, waded in, and splashed to the sting of the inexperienced. “It was actually slimy,” she laughed, reflecting on how she nonetheless ended up making par.

The main Australian was 36-year-old Sarah Kemp, whose two-under 69 put her in a tie for twenty seventh, whereas her fellow Sydneysider Steph Kyriacou loved a spectacular end with 5 birdies within the final eight holes to get to at least one underneath, alongside Lee.

Perth’s Hannah Inexperienced, the 2019 Ladies’s PGA champion, by no means actually recovered from a disappointing begin and completed at one over, tied for 84th, whereas Su Oh will even be battling to make the minimize on Friday at two over, tied for 97th.

AAP

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