After a disappointing first round, Cavan’s Leona Maguire showed up when she needed it the most in Friday’s second round of the KPMG PGA Championship in Minnesota as the 31-year-old posted a 69 to take her inside the +1 cutline.
Sitting three-over-par after 18-holes on Thursday, Maguire knew she had her work cut out for her in the second round and the two-time LPGA winner showed great fight early on to keep her weekend dreams alive.
An early bogey came at the par-4 second, making Maguire’s hill to climb even steeper but Maguire came storming back – making three birdies at the fourth, seventh, and eighth. Now sitting on the cutline, Maguire made bogey at the ninth to close out the front nine.
One-under for the day and two-over after two rounds, Maguire teed up at the tenth knowing the task at hand. Maguire made birdie at the par-3 13th before faulting at the par-5 15th to make bogey.
Needing at least a birdie in her final three holes to make the weekend, Maguire made two at the 16th and 17th to post a three-under-par second round. Maguire sits T43 on the leaderboard at even-par.
It was a day of struggles for Lauren Walsh as the 25-year-old bowed out of the tournament after a disappointing second round.
Walsh sat one-over-par before a ball was struck on Friday but the Kildare native couldn’t get anything to stick in the second round. Three-over par after four holes, things continued to worsen for Walsh as she posted a six-over-par second round which moved her down the leaderboard with a finishing score of +7.
Stephanie Meadow can take a lot of positives from her second round showing as the 34-year-old posted an even-par 72, bouncing back from her disastrous 10-over-par first round.
23-year-old Korean prodigy Ina Yoon extended her lead to five strokes after a three-under-par second round as she experiences leading a weekend for the first time with a score of 12-under. Yoon made five birdies and two bogeys on her way to posting a 69.
“This is actually my first time being lead going into the weekend. It’s actually really nice experience for me. I’m so excited to play last two more days,” said Yoon. “The remaining two days will obviously be nerve-racking, but being nervous is human nature, and I think I want to embrace that and focus on what I can in my shots,” she added.
There is a four-way tie for T2 as Japan’s Nasa Hataoka, Korea’s Haeran Ryu and A Lim Kim, and Canada’s Brooke Henderson, all sit at seven-under.
“It’s halfway done. She had a great first half, so hopefully I can just have a great second half to try to make up the difference,” said Henderson, the Canadian who won the Women’s PGA Championship at age 18 in 2016 at Sahalee Country Club in Washington. “I feel like overall the way I’ve been playing the course has been really solid, so just hopefully I make a few more birdies and climb the board.”
LPGA Tour leader Nelly Korda, who hopes to earn her third major this year, sits T6 at six-under after a four-under-par second round but the 27-year-old will always fancy her chances.
“It is hard to have a big lead going into the weekend. I was there at Chevron and you do feel a little bit more pressure, like everyone is hunting you down. I’m just going to focus on, as boring as it is, one shot at a time and see where that takes me,” Korda said. “I know the wind will be higher this weekend so it’s going to play probably a little bit more difficult, and I’m sure that the pins will be tricked up.”
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