SINGAPORE (AP) - Amy Olson’s eagle on the front nine and a late birdie on the 16th hole were enough for the American to emerge from a five-way tie from the first-round lead to shoot a 3-under 69 and take a two-stroke lead after two rounds at the HSBC Women’s World Championship.
The 26-year-old American had a two-round total of 7-under 137 Friday on the Sentosa Golf Club’s Tanjong course.
There was a five-way tie for second -Inbee Park (69), Azahrara Munoz (68), Jodi Ewart Shadoff (70), No. 1-ranked Ariya Jutanugarn (71) and No. 3 Minjee Lee (71).
After an eagle on the par-5 eighth on Thursday, Olson did the same on the par-5 fifth in the second round.
“I’ve made some pretty good shots on both those par fives to set them up,” Olson said.
“I hit the ball really, really good today and gave myself a ton of birdie opportunities on the front, and honestly, I just couldn’t read the greens out there. I don’t know if the pins were just in tricky spots but I gave up a lot of opportunities on the front nine. A couple putts kind of fell at the end, but just overall, kind of a steady day.”
No. 4 Park, making her first start of the LPGA season, said she was “feeling kind of rusty, but happy where I am at the moment.”
Former No. 1 Lydia Ko shot 70 and was 2-under. Nelly Korda, who won the Women’s Australian Open two weeks ago, shot 70 and was at even-par.
Korda had a painful 74 in her opening round, and tweeted about it later.
“Well, I tried to get out of some trouble by punching out… I proceeded to hit a tree … and slammed the grip end of the club in the ground, little did I know it was going to bounce up and hit me full force in my lip,” she said on Twitter. “That’s what we call Karma.”
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