Leona Maguire and Stephanie Meadow will both have to shoot good scores tomorrow in order to make the weekend, with Maguire hoping a good second round can lift her into contention in the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship.
Maguire started with a birdie on the tenth hole, her first of the day she followed it with three bogeys in four holes to drop to two-over-par. Maguire showed true grit by playing her last 10 holes in three-under-par to salvage an under par round from a tough day as she sits in a tie for 75th place.
Stephanie Meadow combined five bogeys with two birdies on a tough day for the Northern Irish woman who sits on three-over-par amd in need of a great day tomorrow to make the cut.
Lexi Thompson followed a resurgent week at the Solheim Cup with a strong start in the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship.
After going 3-1 in Spain in the United States’ tie that left the cup in Europe’s hands, Thompson shot a six-under 65 on Friday at Pinnacle Country Club to sit a stroke behind leader Hae Ran Ryu on the crowded leaderboard.
“Overall, just a very steady day,” Thompson said. “We had perfect weather out there, so I just tried to take last week into today and just fully commit to every shot that I had out there.”
Thompson is No. 138 in the Race to CME Globe and in danger of losing her LPGA Tour card for 2024 without taking a career money exemption. She has 11 tour victories, the last in the 2019 ShopRite LPGA Classic.
Ryu had four straight birdies in a back-nine 30 in her 64. The 22-year-old South Korean player was the LPGA Q-Series medalist last year.
“Before this tournament I go back to Korea and I’m practice a lot of shots with my coach,” Ryu said. “I got more confidence in my shot.”
Thompson dropped out of a late tie for the lead with Ryu with a bogey on the par-4 eighth, her 17th hole of the day.
Lydia Ko also shot a six-under-par 65 with Yuka Saso, Kelly Tan, Christina Kim, Hannah Green, Olivia Cowan, Jenny Shin and Nicole Broch Estrup.
Maguire and Meadow both get their second rounds underway off the first hole tomorrow. Maguire gets underway at 8.32am local time, 2.32pm Irish time. Meadow gets underway in the afternoon wave, 12.59pm local time, 6.59pm Irish time.
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