How Lexi Fairs with 36-Hole Lead and More from Palm Springs

This is the seventh time that Lexi Thompson has been the leader or co-leader after 36 holes in her career, including three of the last four ANA Inspirations. She is 50/50 on translating that early advantage to taking home the victory.

Pairings were generated using the standard LPGA method with the leaders going off last on hole #1, the median scores first off of holes #1 and #10 and the higher scores going off last on hole #10 in threesomes. 72 players made the cut at +2.

For Complete Third Round Pairings>>

HALL-OF-FAMER DOESN’T SKIP A BEAT

LPGA Tour Hall of Fame inductee Inbee Park hasn’t finished outside of the top 25 on the leaderboard in her four starts since winning Gold at the Rio Olympics. Park became the first player to capture multiple wins at the HSBC Women’s Champions at the beginning of March, and is looking to win her eighth major championship and second ANA Inspiration title this week.

Park said she worried about her health heading into the year after battling back from a left thumb injury that plagued her 2016 season.

“Just being really free of injury and how I was away from the game for a long time,” Park said of her preseason concerns. “So to get the competition feeling again back on the golf course was a worry, but it didn’t take that long.”

The 2017 LPGA season features two pairs of sisters on Tour - Nelly and Jessica Korda and Ariya and Moriya Jutanugarn - and all four are in good position entering the weekend at the ANA Inspiration. Rookie Nelly Korda leads the pack as her back-to-back 69s put her tied for second at six-under, and three strokes ahead of sister Jessica who is T17 (-3).

“I’m like, man, one day, I wish I was as good as her,” Jessica said on seeing Nelly’s name at the top of the leaderboard. “It’s so great. I know all the hard work that she’s put in, too, and I’m so proud to see that it’s paying off and paying off really quickly.”

One stroke separates World No. 2 Ariya Jutanugarn and sister Moriya. Just this season, the duo has racked up six top-5 finishes, and heading into the third round of the season’s first major championship, Moriya currently sits at -5 and T8 while Ariya is -4 and T11.

Sister comparison through the first six events of the 2017 season:

The five major champions in 2016 all came from the top 40 in the Rolex Rankings.

Last Five Major Champions - 2016 LPGA Tour Season

No player outside the top 37 in the world has won in the past five years at the ANA Inspiration.

Last Five ANA Inspiration Champions

QUICK HITS

In 11 appearances at the ANA Inspiration, two-time major champion Suzann Pettersen has collected three runner-up finishes, most recently in 2010.

Suzann Pettersen has never held a share of the Round 2 lead at Mission Hills. However, nine of her 15 LPGA titles have come when she’s been a leader/co-leader after the second round.

In four starts this season, Suzann Pettersen has brushed the top 15 just once at the HSBC Women’s Champions, while her last victory was in 2015 at the Manulife LPGA Classic.

Inbee Park has won six major championships since 2011, the most by any player during this time frame. When she won at Mission Hills in 2013, she led the field by one stroke after the second round.

During her amateur career, Nelly Korda played in four major championships, making the cut twice and earning a career-best T59 finish at the 2016 U.S. Women’s Open.

In two starts at the ANA Inspiration, Nelly Korda missed both the cuts with her best 36-hole score coming in 2014 (157). Her -6 (138) score this year is her second-lowest career 36-hole mark. 

Nelly Korda is currently in the hunt for the Louise Suggs Rolex Rookie of the Year award. She is 77 points behind Sung Hyun Park who is five under through eight holes in Round 2. 

LPGA Tour vet Cristie Kerr has 18 career starts at the ANA Inspiration, with a career-best T2 finish back in 2009. 

Cristie Kerr is coming off of her best finish, T4 at the Kia Classic, since she won the 2015 CME Group Tour Championship.

Minjee Lee has shot a second-round 68 in three of her four ANA Inspiration appearances (2014, 2016, 2017) and made the cut each of those three years. In 2015, she shot a second-round 72 en route to missing the cut.

Minjee Lee hit 10 of 14 fairways and made 28 putts in both the first and second rounds.

Moriya Jutanugarn has two top-10 finishes this season and hasn’t finished outside the top 16 in six starts this year.

Sebastian Korda, the 16-year-old brother of 23-year-old Jessica Korda and 18-year-old Nelly Korda, has made it to the quarterfinals as the 10th seed in the International Tennis Federation Junior Circuit’s Easter Bowl Championship at Indian Wells in Rancho Mirage. Their father Petr Korda peaked at No. 2 in the world and won 10 singles titles, including 1998 Australian Open, while mother Regina was on the Czech Republic Olympic tennis team at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul.

Play was officially suspended at 7:04 p.m. local time due to darkness, and players were allowed to finish the hole they were on at the time. Round 2 play will resume at 7:15 a.m. local time on Saturday morning. Pairings for Round 3 will be generated following the conclusion of the second round.

QUOTABLE

“Well, the only thing that they say, if we play final round together, in the last group, she going to try to beat me and I say I’m going to try to beat her.”

               - Moriya Jutanugarn on the possibility of playing next to her sister, Ariya, in the final group at a tournament.