After a nearly two-hour rain delay stopped play on Friday morning, the second round of the 2022 CP Women’s Open was suspended due to darkness at 7:49 p.m., with 36 players left to finish their rounds on Saturday morning. Play resumed Saturday at 7:15 a.m., with 78 players making the cut at -2.
South Korea’s Narin An, a 2022 LPGA Tour rookie, sits atop the leaderboard at -13, two strokes ahead of her countrywoman Hye-Jin Choi; first-round leader Paula Reto of South Africa; former Rolex Rankings No. 1 Nelly Korda and her fellow American Lindy Duncan.
An is bogey-free so far in Canada, following her first-round 64 with a 6-under 65 on Friday. She found all 13 fairways on Friday and missed just one green. “The birdie chances came from a lot of good iron shots and my putting was able to support those iron shots, and thus put up good results today,” said An, who has two victories on the KLPGA Tour.
An and Choi, also a 2022 rookie, partnered in July at the Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational, where they tied for sixth. Choi is now chasing her playing partner after a second-round 63, Choi’s lowest round in her 41 career LPGA Tour starts. “There was a lot of rain coming down before play so I had a feeling it would be tough today. But I got to go out again from the first hole and the weather was great,” said Choi, who had teed off on No. 1 just before play was suspended. “My shot condition wasn’t great today, but lot of mid- to long-range putts were dropping and that helped reduce my score.”
Duncan was one of the 36 players who had to return on Saturday morning and made the most of her finishing four holes. The Duke University alumna closed with birdies on her final three holes for a second-round 62, which ties both the CP Women’s Open 18-hole scoring record and the course record set by Reto on Friday.
“I was pretty excited last night because I had played really well. I think I was quite a few under, so I was pretty excited,” said Duncan, who also set a career-low round on the LPGA Tour by two strokes. “You just never know what each day will bring, so I tried to just calm down after that because still a long way to go.”
Korda and Lexi Thompson, playing in a two-ball after Minjee Lee withdrew on Thursday, didn’t think they remotely had a chance to finish until the sun started peeking through at the turn. Korda and Thompson sped through their final few holes, with Korda dropping in a birdie at No. 9 that got her to -11 overall just a minute before the horns blew.
“I was just hitting it really good,” said Korda, who shot a 7-under 64 on Friday. “I capitalized on pretty much all the par-5s. a lot were moved up, so for a long hitter we have shorter clubs in and we can kind of take advantage of that. Just played some solid golf.”
Canada’s Brooke Henderson continued her chase for a second CP Women’s Open title with a 3-under 68 on Friday and is tied for 32nd. With throngs of loyal fans braving the morning rains in support of their favorite daughter, Henderson was disappointed by a closing bogey on No. 18. But she also knows first-hand that a low round is out there as she heads into the weekend at Ottawa Hunt.
“It's going to be tough at this point, but if I get really hot the next two days, you never know what's possible,” said Henderson, who shot a third-round 63 at Ottawa Hunt in 2017. “But it's going to take some solid scores, so I'm just kind of going to take it one shot at a time and try to make some birdies and kind of get it rolling.”
)
)
)
)
