JANG, PARK SHARE SECOND ROUND LEAD

South Koreans Ha Na Jang and Hee Young Park each shot a 3-under par 69 to position themselves at the top of the leaderboard at 6-under going into the weekend at the Fubon LPGA Taiwan Championship.

A steady rain fell on the players throughout the day on Friday and only ceased towards the end of the afternoon, making the already tough conditions even more of a challenge. As a result, only 25 players in the field remain at even par or better through two rounds.

Park is aiming for the third win of her career and first since the 2013 Manulife Financial LPGA Classic. She mentioned that she was prepared in anticipation of inclement weather during the Tour’s Asia swing.

“I expect a lot of rain, so I had practice - it’s about just one week - but I had a lot of practice with the trajectory, different kind of shot from the range, which is a lot of help this week also,” Park said. “So that’s why I hit it a lot close today even with the wind and the rain.”

Ha Na Jang is one of six players with multiple wins on Tour in 2016 as she became a Rolex First-Time Winner at the Coates Golf Championship Presented by R&L Carriers and then won again just a month later at the HSBC Women’s Champions. A win this week would allow her to join Lydia Ko and Ariya Jutanugarn as the only players with at least three wins on the year.

2016 WINS LEADERS

5 - Ariya Jutanugarn

4 - Lydia Ko

2 - 4 players tied (Brooke Henderson, Ha Na Jang, Sei Young Kim, Haru Nomura)

1 - 8 players tied

Jang has kept her game plan simple through two days at Miramar Golf & Country Club.

“Yeah, I mean, like the two-putt, after I’m just think about, just say, ‘Trust yourself,’ Jang explained. “’You great player. Just be patient. Middle of the green is fine. Two-putt is pretty good. Par score is pretty good.’”

Four players are one shot back of the leaders including another South Korean in So Yeon Ryu, China’s Shanshan Feng, South Africa’s Lee-Anne Pace and Canada’s Brooke Henderson.

KOREA CONTINUES HIGH LEVEL PLAY

Four Korean players are among the top seven in the field heading into the weekend at the Fubon LPGA Taiwan Championship. A win by a Korean player would be the third in a row following In Gee Chun’s victory at The Evian Championship and In-Kyung Kim’s win last week at the Reignwood LPGA Classic.

So Yeon Ryu (-5) is one of the players in the hunt for what could potentially be the seventh different Korean player to win on Tour in 2016.

“You know, definitely feel proud to see like lot of Korean fellow players win lot of tournaments,” Ryu said. “At the same time could be really great motivate to me. Like, Oh, oh, my Korean friend win the tournament. I want to be one of the Korean champions. Definitely make me a lot of motivation.”

2016 WINS BY COUNTRY

8 - South Korea (six players)

5 - Thailand (Ariya Jutanugarn)

4 - New Zealand (Lydia Ko)

2 - Japan (Haru Nomura)

2 - Canada (Brooke Henderson)

2 - United States (Lexi Thompson, Brittany Lang)

1 - Australia (Minjee Lee)

1 - Sweden (Anna Nordqvist)

1 - Germany (Caroline Masson)

JODI EWART SHADOFF WEARS PINK THIS OCTOBER

Jodi Ewart Shadoff will spread awareness for breast cancer research during the month of October by wearing pink gear and using a specially designed pink golf bag in all of the tournaments she is scheduled to participate.

Shadoff is a brand ambassador for Omni United’s flagship brand, Radar Tires. In 2011 Omni launched the ‘Mobilizing Hope’ campaign, a corporate alliance with The Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF) that has included donations for each Radar tire sold or one-off contributions. To date this campaign has contributed over $1 million or funded over 21,000 hours in some of the world’s most promising and innovative research towards preventing and curing breast cancer.

“It’s not about donations,” Shadoff said. “It’s about raising awareness. If anybody can see me out there, husband, boyfriend, a woman herself, and ask, ‘What is this girl doing? I’ve never had a mammogram. Should I have one?’ If that helps save one life, we’ve succeeded in our mission.”

NUMBERS TO KNOW

-22 - Tournament scoring record (Inbee Park, 2014)

-9 - Highest winning score at this tournament (Suzann Pettersen, 2013)

8 - Players within three shots of the lead after the second round

20 - Taiwanese players in the field this week

2 - Taiwanese players in the top-18 going into the weekend (within six shots of lead)

Fubon LPGA Taiwan Championship Rd 2 Notes

Related Articles