Nelly Korda (-10) has taken the lead of the LPGA Drive On Championship, the second tournament of the American circuit season, which is being held for the first time at the Bradenton Country Club in Florida, the place where Petr’s daughter cut her teeth.
Korda has taken the lead with a very good round of golf of 67 strokes, six birdies and two bogeys. The world’s number 4 executed a powerful final sprint to catch the lead, ending the day with three birdies in her last four holes. Again, the punch and the long game were the pillars of her good day of golf. In 36 holes she has only left three greens behind. A sledgehammer.
Korda has a two-stroke lead over Korean So Mi Lee (-8) and three over Xiyu Lin (-7), Ayaka Furue (-7) and Lydia Ko (-7). The playing conditions have been very difficult again. The wind has blown generously. Just half of the players managed to beat the course. Maja Stark’s (-2) super comeback deserves a special mention. The Swede seemed sentenced with her first round on Thursday of 76 strokes, but today she managed to hand in a card with twelve fewer strokes (64) and has comfortably made it into the pack of players who will play all four days.
Among the Spaniards, heads and tails. Azahara Muñoz (-3) has signed a round of 70 strokes, with four birdies and three bogeys, and remains in the noble area of the table, closely looking at the top 10, located at -5. The Malaga native has struggled a bit more than yesterday from tee to green and, on the contrary, has been more solid on the greens. If she manages to put the two pieces of the game together over the weekend, she will be very high up. Today she has managed to squeeze the three par 5s of the Florida course.
The cross has been for Carlota Ciganda (+4). The Navarrese needed a Maja Stark-style reaction to make the cut, but she fell short. She made par, with five birdies and five bogeys, far from what she needed to secure a place in the last two rounds. She finished four strokes off the cut.
Ariya Jutanugarn, Alexa Pano, Grace Kim, Matilda Castren or Moriya Jutanugarn also missed the cut.
