Nelly Korda continuing strong play
Nelly Korda was able to do something that even more experience golfers than her, a rookie on the LPGA Tour in 2017, have trouble doing: she backed up a solid round Thursday with another good one Friday.
And after rounds of 68-64 in Ohio, Korda is just one shot back of the lead at 10-under par. Gerina Piller leads at 11-under.
Korda, who said the golf course suits her eye, birdied nine holes Friday, offset by just two bogeys.
“Definitely in a zone… I actually only hit one bad drive today, and the key on this golf course is to hit as many fairways as possible, and I was doing that today,” she said. “I had short wedges into the greens, so whenever you have that, it makes it a little easier. But nothing out here is easy.”
Korda plans to stick to her game plan – which has worked just fine through the first two rounds – as she heads into the weekend with a chance to win her first LPGA Tour title. Sister Jessica last one in 2015.
“I kind of have a game plan, and I've just been sticking to it for the past two days. Today it worked out really well. I was hitting it really well,” she said. “I'm just going to keep the same game plan for the weekend, and not change anything.”
Stacy Lewis makes cut in hometown event
It was an up-and-down day for Toledo, Ohio’s own Stacy Lewis at her hometown event, the Marathon Classic presented by Owens Corning and O-I, but in the end, her 2-under par total through two rounds has her seeing the weekend.
She got off to a fast start Friday, birding three of her first four holes, before going 4-over par over her next 12 holes. She birdied the par-5 17th to get to even par for the day, and admitted she was struggling with her irons.
“It's been an issue from the get-go. Kind of had good numbers for the first few holes, and kind of ran into a streak there where I had in-between numbers and just wasn't able to control the irons,” she said. “It's something I've been working on the last few weeks, so it's not necessarily a surprise.”
Lewis was critical of the changes to the 18th hole at Highland Meadows Golf Club, but, with her being so far back of the lead, she’s eager to work on the shots she’ll need for the upcoming stretch of links golf the LPGA Tour is about to embark on.
“At this point it's now try to play better and get ready for links golf next week and just controlling ball flight and controlling spin,” she said. “That's what I'll kind of work on this weekend.”
Lexi Thompson admits 2017 has been a challenge
Lexi Thompson fired a 6-under-par 65 Friday to move into a tie for second, a position she’s become quite comfortable in as 2017 as wore on. However, she admitted 2017 has been an ‘up-and-down’ year both on and off the course, as her mother was recently diagnosed with cancer. Her mother, is, however, doing better.
“I feel like the emotional stuff has definitely put a toll on me, but a lot better now knowing my mom is good and healthy, so that's been helping out a lot,” she explained. “I’m just trying to work on my game a lot. Just trying to keep positive, and I know my good golf is there, just got to stay patient with it going into the rest of the majors and the rest of the year.”
Thompson said that although the golf course is tight in spots, she still hits driver off the tee – even though she probably shouldn’t.
“I actually really love this golf course. I get to hit a lot of drivers where I probably shouldn't, but I do anyway,” she said with a smile. “With the little cut that I'm actually hitting this week, it actually sets up well for a few of these tee shots that you have to hit around trees. But there are a good amount of wedges on this golf course, but you still have to hit the shots.”
Laura Diaz relishing being back and playing well
By her own admission, 42-year-old Laura Diaz said 2015 was a ‘disaster.’
Now, in her third event on the LPGA Tour in 2017, she’s back playing the kind of golf she hoped she’d always be able to after suffering a near career-ending injury.
“I walked away. Didn't know what I was going to do, and then I broke my leg, so I thought that was God's way of saying take some time off. So now I'm in a little bit different of a place and just going out and trying to play the best golf I can,” said Diaz. “Leaderboard is not in my eyesight at all, not that it's not in everybody who's pinging me on my phone, but it's great to be able to just go out and shoot 67-67. I haven't done that in a long time, so that feels good. I'm just going to focus on that.”
Diaz, who missed all of 2016 due to that broken leg, is a two-time winner on the LPGA Tour. She’s made just her second cut since 2015 this week, but now she’s looking for more, as she sits just three shots back of the lead.
Defending champion Lydia Ko rallies to make cut
It wasn’t a round filled with highlights for Lydia Ko, but it was efficient, and she rallied after a 1-over par round Thursday to fire a 3-under-par 68 Friday and make the cut by one shot.
“I just didn't start off well yesterday,” said Ko, who is the defending champion this week, and also won this tournament in 2014. “On a course like this where the girls are shooting 8-under and those kind of low scores, if you're not making putts, you're not making birdies, you're not going to have a very good score, and this is kind of the golf course where birdies are important, and you need to make them.”
Today was much better, although she admitted she felt as though she was kind of ‘stuck’ around par for most of Friday.
“I made really good birdies on No’s 2 and 3 to kind of put myself back into the even, but I had actually a lot of good looks for birdie, but then it was like yesterday, not many of them were dropping,” she said. “I saw the leaderboard, and I knew I needed to birdie either 17 or 18, so I tried to play that way because bogey or par was probably not going to cut it.”
Ko admitted she’s not looking at the leader since she is so far back, but, she’s proven that she can go low.
“I know we have two rounds of golf, but it just shows that the girls are playing great, and on a course like this, you're trying to play the best you can so you can make that gap a little less and a little less rather than thinking, ‘hey, I'm going to win this,’” she said. “Obviously, who knows, miracles can happen, but I've just got to be patient and try and limit the mistakes and make a couple more birdies out there the next couple of days.”
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