Ireland’s Leona Maguire and Stephanie Meadow both dug deep in their second rounds at the Gainbridge LPGA event at Boca Rio to ensure they stuck around for the weekend.
After an opening day one-over par round (73) Maguire found herself outside the cut mark having only hit 50% of fairways on her return to LPGA action so she desperately needed something to change to get her back on track.
And change it did as she hit 13 of 14 fairways and 12 of 18 greens in regulation on day two and, combined with a total of 28 putts, signed for a second round of 70 which included four birdies with her only blip being a double bogey ‘5’ on 17.
Maguire has moved up considerably on the board and now finds herself in T38 position on 1-under par but she still remains a long way off tournament leaders Danielle Kang and Lydia Ko who, on 11-under par, have distanced themselves from the field and are four shots ahead of their nearest rivals.
Like Maguire, Stephanie Meadow was outside the cut line following an opening round of 75 but also turned her fortunes around on day two hitting 13 of 14 fairways and recording 28 putts, but she managed an even better return of 69 strokes as she also carded four birdies but dropped just one shot on the 14th.
The Jordanstown native is now at level par and in T49 position heading to round three.
At the top it’s all about Kang and Ko as Danielle Kang, off the back of her 6th LPGA Tour win made gains on the field with a second round 68 and after closing with back-to-back birdies at 8 and 9 to get to 11-under par said; “I’m just proud of the process. It’s not just about repeating the same thing I did last week. It’s being able to keep the consistency up.
“I really wanted to get to double digits [under par]. That was my goal today, so I was happy to do that.”
As for Ko, she opened with a blistering 63 in round one which she followed up with a 2-under par round of 70 and the 16-time tour winner said “When you get off to a hot start, I think you do put a little bit of pressure on yourself. Even though you’re a couple under par, you don’t feel like it was as good because you keep comparing. But I tried not to do that and be committed over each shot, play the best golf I could today.”
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