Stephanie Meadow finds herself inside the top-30 following the second round of the Pure Silk Championship on the LPGA Tour after carding a two-under par 69 which included three birdies and just the one dropped shot.
Meadow, fresh off the back of qualifying for the US Women’s Open, added to her opening 72 (+1) efforts and is now just five strokes off the six-under par leading score set by Australian Sarah Kemp heading to moving day.
Unfortunately it wasn’t the return to action Leona Maguire would have wanted following a trip home to Ireland as she left herself with plenty to do following an opening 72 (+1) and could only add a second round 75 (+4) which included four bogeys, a double and just the two birdies and she fell some way short of the +3 cut mark.
Kemp grabbed the headlines thanks to her four-under par round of 67 and she holds a one stroke lead at -6 heading to round three. The big names are gathering though with 2020 Symetra Tour player of the year Ana Belac, in form Jessica Korda who carded eagles at two of the par 5’s as well as Stacy Lewis all on five-under par with another five players including Thailand’s Moriya Jutanugarn just one stroke further back.
“It was great. I had a really good warmup. I just felt really good,” said Kemp who said she slept great the night before. “And sometimes you just feel like you’re going to play well, and it was one of those days. I hit some great shots. Made some putts. I didn’t miss a whole lot of fairways. Probably had under 30 putts, and that leads to 4-under.”
Kemp, returned the round of the day with six birdies and two bogeys but didn’t even realise she had shot it until she got into the scoring tent. “I asked my caddie, ‘what did we shoot?’” she said.
For anyone unfamiliar with the 35-year old Australian, she has 12 worldwide professional wins and while she has yet to break through on the LPGA Tour in 13 seasons, Kemp has seen her game improve dramatically in the last year.
“I really turned my putting around at the end of last year,” she said. “I worked really hard. I was annoyed because I had hit the ball great for a couple years and I just didn’t convert the opportunities.
“I worked really hard on my pace and like today, the pace of my putts has been really good. I’m getting it three feet past (the hole), which I like. That’s a good putt. Have a go. So, just putting really, because I feel like I’ve hit the ball the same for a couple years now.”
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