Megan Khang joined Australian Minjee Lee atop the 36-hole leaderboard on the ISPS Handa Ladies’s Scottish Open on Friday as a handful of gamers started to interrupt from the pack in Ayrshire, Scotland.
Khang shot her second straight spherical of 68 and Lee posted a 69 to get to 8-under 136. They’ve a two-stroke lead over Lauren Coughlin (69), New Zealand’s Lydia Ko (69) and Englishwoman Charley Hull (68).
No different participant is decrease than 3 beneath for the event (Germany’s Esther Henseleit and China’s Mary Liu).
Khang, a 26-year-old from Massachusetts, has only one LPGA win to her title however entered the week No. 27 in factors for the season-long Race to the CME Globe. Khang put up six birdies and two bogeys at Dundonald Hyperlinks Friday.
That included a chip-in birdie for the second straight day. Friday’s got here on the par-5 third gap, as Khang helpfully put some backspin on her ball that despatched it straight into the cup.
“I used to be within the mindset of, ‘Let’s attempt to hit it shut and make par,'” Khang mentioned. “Once more, , hit a very good chip and sort of bounced again and spun just a little again into the outlet. So stuff like that sort of helps you sort of keep inside your self and never get too annoyed on the market. Regardless that you hit tee shot and should not get the bounce you need, you possibly can all the time gap out from anyplace, I suppose.”
Lee started on the again 9 and had her large stretch halfway by means of her spherical, making all 4 of her birdies between Nos. 17 and three.
“I might like to win and that’s what we try for as gamers,” Lee mentioned. “However , I am simply going to do what I can management, and clearly I am unable to management what different individuals are doing. I will simply strive my perfect, and if that occurs to be a win, that is nice. But when it does not, it is also a part of my course of, too.”
The tie for third options two gamers within the prime six of the CME Globe standings. Coughlin is fifth in factors after she earned her first profession LPGA win final month on the CPKC Ladies’s Open. She had a bogey-free spherical Friday after making pars for her complete first 9 (the again 9).
“I felt simply clearly superb after the win,” Coughlin mentioned. “However I really feel like I nonetheless need to do it once more and so I am fascinated with larger targets and actually simply feeling tremendous grateful and simply making an attempt to maintain doing what I am doing and clearly it was working. So I am simply not likely altering something.”
Ko, who gained in January earlier than selecting up the gold medal on the Olympics final week, is sixth in CME Globe factors. She shot her second straight 69 by making 4 birdies to only one bogey.
“It is loads of creativity is required when the wind is that this a lot as a result of I’ve to hit a 3-wood from 175 (yards), which is generally a 5-iron distance,” Ko mentioned. “I feel it is sort of out of the strange conditions, however you simply have to regulate to the conditions actually fast.”
Hull’s card was a lot busier than her counterparts. She eagled the par-5 18th (her ninth gap of the day) to go together with six birdies and 4 bogeys.
Notables to overlook the reduce of 4 over par included Ally Ewing (6 over), Moriya Jutanugarn of Thailand (6 over) and Maja Stark of Sweden (7 over).
–Subject Stage Media
