Everyday Joh
Tiffany Joh sits at even par at her halfway point of the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. Joh birdied the 9th hole, her 18th, and joins So Yeon Ryu as the only two players in the clubhouse with a two-day score of even or better. Joh’s strong start is certainly a surprise considering she has yet to win an LPGA event and she owns just one career top-10 finish on Tour, which came in the 2011 Navistar LPGA Classic.
Despite her solid score, Joh struggled, especially with the driver. She hit only 7 of 14 fairways (50%). “I think every day you kind of just have to accept it for what it's going to be,” Joh said. “And today I scrambled really well. But, then I have to just shut the book on this round and focus on tomorrow.” Joh was born and resides in San Diego, graduated from UCLA, and is a two-time winner of the U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links Championship (2006, ’08).
Park Struggles, Three-Year Reign Appears To Be Near Its End
Little more than 12 hours after cementing her LPGA Tour Hall of Fame status, Inbee Park struggled in the second round, carding an 8-over 79 that is very likely to leave her two-day total of 151 on the wrong side of the cut line. If Park misses the cut, her three-year run as KPMG Women’s PGA Champion will come to an end, and she will be the first defending champion to miss the cut in this Championship in 39 years (Betty Burfeindt in 1977).
Inkster Keeps On Rolling
LPGA and World Golf Hall-of-Famer Juli Inkster, 55, began the Championship with a 75, and rallied Friday with an even-par 71 to make her 29th cut in 31 appearances at 4-over-par 146. Inkster, who mixed four birdies and four bogeys, said that she was proud of her making the cut as often as she has in this major championship.
“That’s a good record. Probably the two I missed were in Rochester [former Wegman’s LPGA Championship near Rochester, New York]. I hated that course,” she laughed. “Here, it’s a good golf course, and they have the pins where you’ve got to think about it. I drove it better today and putted better.”
For the record, Inkster missed one cut in Rochester in 2013 and another in 1990 in Bethesda (Maryland) Country Club. She said that anyone in the field has to keep certain things in mind about playing Sahalee Country Club.
“You still have to hit the shots, even though you have the sense of what it takes to be successful here,” Inkster said. “The greens are really firm; you’ve got to play for the bounces, and you have to be on the right side of the fairway. You get a lot of long rolls out there.”
What A Difference A Day Makes
Scotland’s Catriona Matthew amended her struggles in the opening round (76) by crafting a sterling 4-under par 67, which was the low round of the morning and her career low round in this Championship.
“I actually played pretty well yesterday, but I had a bad hole at 17, and dumped two in the water,” she said of yesterday’s triple bogey six. “But apart from that, I played well. Today, I played well again, but hit the 17th green this time and gave myself a chance.”
Is there a secret to playing Sahalee? “You have to hit it on the fairway and the right half of the fairway,” said Matthew. “I missed one today (Hole No. 2), got lucky and had a shot to the green.
Deuces Wild
In one of the group scoring rarities for the week, playing partners Catriona Matthew, Sadena Parks and Minjee Lee each made a deuce on their closing hole, the 164-yard, par-3 ninth. Matthew rolled in a 12-foot birdie putt to close her round of 67.
)
)
)
)
