Kingsmill Championship Presented by JTBC Round 2 Notes

So Yeon Ryu shot the low round of the week so far, 7-under 64, to take the second-round lead at the Kingsmill Championship. Ryu sits atop the leaderboard at 7-under par after improving on her first round by seven shots. She leads the trio of Stacy Lewis, Amy Yang and Mika Miyazato who are tied for second and one shot back. Four players are at 5-under par in a tie for fifth including defending champion Minjee Lee, Jessica Korda, Caroline Masson and Amelia Lewis.

Ryu, who shot even-par 71 in the first round, began her day on the back nine and bogeyed the par 4 10th hole to start off.

“Today I’ve been putting really nice,” said Ryu. “My first hole I made a bogey, but it felt really great the next two holes. I made birdie-birdie right away. Even my shot and birdie putt, and putting -- I think today just everything was really working well.”

Ryu recovered with a vengeance and had six birdies on her next eight holes to turn in 30. She picked up two more birdies on her back nine on Nos. 4 and 7 to get to 7-under for the day and overall. The three-time LPGA winner and major champion said getting to a low number today will give her a boost of confidence heading into the weekend.

“Oh, absolutely. I think these days -- I haven’t really consistently shot low scores since Hawai’i, like five or six tournaments, then I shot 7-under again today, so I hope I can hold this score the next two days, as well.”

The 25-year old has not finished worse than an eight-place finish (2013) in her past three appearances at Kingsmill. She was runner-up last year and fifth in 2014. She’s playing for her first victory since the 2014 Canadian Pacific Women’s Open.

“This one is definitely my favorite golf course what we play. Like you say, I consistently play really well here, so I feel really comfortable to stay here,” said Ryu. “I think I just really like the atmosphere, so I really enjoy it, so enjoying it makes me play.”

Lewis, who was playing alongside Ryu, had the next best round of the day, 5-under 66, and said the two were playing off one another.

“We both got off to a really good start…When you see other people make birdies, it kind of frees you up to know that it’s out there,” said Lewis. “Our whole group yesterday didn’t really make that many birdies, and so it was kind of boring in a sense, so we were definitely kind of feeding off of each other.”

The 11-time LPGA winner is yet again in the mix to try to snap her 49-event winless drought. With heavy rain in the forecast for Saturday’s third round, Lewis said it will be a mental test more than anything.

“I’m happy with the round today,” said Lewis. “I needed a good score today to get up in contention and on the leaderboard, but it’s just going to be a long weekend. You get ready for that. You get ready for delays and playing in the wet, and this golf course is going to get even harder. You just kind of mentally prepare for it and know it’s going to happen, and if it doesn’t, that’s a great thing.”

World No. 1 Lydia Ko bounced back from a first-round 73 and posted a 3-under 68 to move into a tie for T37. Rolex Rankings No. 2 Inbee Park withdrew after six holes on Friday citing her left thumb injury that kept her out of action for the last three LPGA events. 

In early September last year, So Yeon Ryu was ranked No. 4 in the Rolex Rankings and coming off top-5 finishes at the U.S. Women’s Open and the Ricoh Women’s British Open. The next week she finished T46 at The Evian Championship and started a slide in the rankings to where she stands now – at No. 11.

Ryu had a top-10 finish at three of her last five tournaments beginning with the ANA Inspiration. This week, she rebounded from an opening round 71 with a 64 today thanks to eight birdies, putting and motivation from playing with World No. 4 Stacy Lewis.

“It’s really fun to play with someone consistently making birdies. Also we’re not really competing with each other, we’re just really supportive of each other,” Ryu described. “Even when we have a bad shot, we keep talking to the ball, ‘stay there,’ or just ‘keep up.’ It was really fun to play with Stacy.”

The cutline fell at 1-over par 143 with a total of 76 players making the cut. Notables to miss the cut: Paula Creamer (+4), Yani Tseng (+4), Se Ri Pak (+5), Michelle Wie (+8).

Due to heavy rainfall in the morning forecast for Saturday’s third round, tee times will start at 9:43 am ET and groups will be going off both 1st and 10th tees in threesomes. The final group will go off at 11:55 am ET.

Inbee Park withdrew after six holes into the second round due to a left thumb injury. Park had missed the last three events with the same injury.

Stacy Lewis has not won an event since the 2014 Walmart NW Arkansas Championship – a streak of 49 events without a win

Jessica Korda birdied Nos. 17 and 18 to finish at 5-under and T5 heading into the weekend

This is the second time So Yeon Ryu has lead or co-lead after 36 holes this season. She also led after the second round at the Tour’s last event, the Yokohama Tire LPGA Classic where she finished T10.