The wind didn’t arrive, and the conditions weren’t as difficult on this second day of the US Women’s Open. Gusts of up to 30 kilometres per hour were expected, but in the end, Erin Hills also escaped a potential thunderstorm that could have arrived in the afternoon session. In fact, the light rain made the greens more receptive than the USGA would have preferred. There was a brief pause late in the day due to the risk of a storm, but it hardly affected play.
Finally, the cut was set at +1, with two of our own playing over the weekend. Julia López (-2) is in the top 20 of the tournament, and Carolina López Chacarra (+1) made one of the comebacks of the day to make the cut in extremis. The last two matches of the day are yet to be completed, but only a remote fluke would bring the +2 and Paula Martín among them.
Julia López continues to perform at Erin Hills. With a less brilliant and more resilient approach, she managed to hold her ground. The player from Benahavís felt the tension after the great first day’s round but maintained her composure to finish with a scorecard of 74 strokes and two under par overall. She is within the top twenty, six strokes off the lead, with a chance to dream of a great result in Wisconsin.
This is Julia’s third Major and her third cut made. It’s no small feat. The player from Malaga enjoys the big occasions and is proving it every step of the way. This Friday, she started with a birdie on the 2nd hole, which actually put her in the lead of the tournament on her own. The excitement was total, but two flags later, her first bogey of the tournament came. She had miraculously saved par on the previous hole from fifteen metres, yet the bogey came from a putt of just over a metre that she missed.
The dynamic was different from the previous day. The 22-year-old golfer struggled to make pars, and after the first bogey, two more consecutive ones followed after missing two putts of barely a metre. Julia was in trouble. It was time to stay calm. She managed to recover one of those strokes on the 7th hole but stumbled again shortly after.
If yesterday she hit sixteen greens in regulation, this Friday it was eleven, but this had a specific cause: she barely hit six fairways throughout the round. With the rough protecting Erin Hills, the difference between being on the fairway or not is night and day. Julia struggled with the driver, and the rest gradually followed suit. On the other hand, nothing surprising after a first round that was very difficult to match.
“Obviously, it’s not the result I wanted today, but I’m in a good position, and I have to keep the intention of having fun; this course allows for a good time, and I’m well placed on the leaderboard,” Julia concluded.
Her compatriot, Carolina López Chacarra (-1), made one of the day’s comebacks to sneak into the weekend. A scorecard of 69 strokes with only one bogey and a climb of forty places. Her first Major, her first cut. Carol quietly makes her mark, without making noise and discreetly, but in her debut, she knew how to fight to turn around an initial round of 76 strokes.
The player from Madrid started the day with a bogey that didn’t foreshadow what happened next. Not a single mistake more and four birdies that put her among the top 45 of the tournament. She finished her match just moments before play was definitively halted. Her birdie on the 16th hole gave her the ticket to the weekend, and she held up very well on the final two holes with pars: “On the last hole, I was very nervous, to be honest, but I managed to handle the pressure, and I’m very happy to play two more days in my first Major. Amazing.”
Meanwhile, the tournament leader is Mao Saigo (-8). The Japanese player is determined to fight for her second consecutive Major. The winner of the Chevron Championship is the leader after the first two rounds. She delivered the best scorecard of the day to gain six strokes on the course and be the only player to reach eight under par. The key was with the putter in hand. Just 24 putts throughout the day. Saigo has opened up an interesting cushion of three strokes with the chasing pack.
Among them is the World Number One. The relationship of Nelly Korda (-5) with the US Women’s Open is not the most idyllic; it’s the only Major where she has missed three cuts, and her ten strokes on the 12th hole at Lancaster twelve months ago are already part of the tournament’s history. An eighth place is her best result in the tournament. Well, the World Number One is determined to turn the situation around.
This Friday, she sealed the best scorecard of her career in the tournament. She has played 36 rounds, and it’s the first time she has delivered a scorecard of 67 strokes, the second-best of the day. The World Number One is in the red zone and is now three strokes off the lead. Alongside her are Maja Stark, Shibuno, Sarah Schemelzel, Yealimini Noh, and the Korean Lim Kim, champion of the US Open.
The five-stroke difference between the first day at par and this second has a key factor: the putter. She herself acknowledges it: “I think both days I’ve played very well, selecting the shots well. My caddie insisted that I be patient, and today the putts did go in,” Korda proudly summarised.
Paula Martín, for her part, finished in the morning session with +2 and sat down to wait. A great four-metre birdie putt on the 18th hole gave her a chance to believe. For several hours, it seemed that result would be enough, but the top sixty and ties made the cut, and she ended up 62nd. The round hasn’t been fully completed, and she still has a remote chance. There are two matches that haven’t finished, and if Wei-Ling Hsu (PAR) and Avery (-1) get into trouble in the remaining two holes and neither Linea Strom (+2) nor Daniel Arquea (+2) make birdies in those same matches, she would make the cut. It seems like too much luck. A cruel end.
Those who definitely won’t play over the weekend are Carlota Ciganda (+7) and Carla Bernat (+7). The young winner of the ANWA was hampered by a final round of 77 strokes and, above all, a quadruple bogey on the 6th hole that put her +6 on the day and a mountain very difficult to climb. At least the player from Castellón kept her composure and beat the course with a one-under-par score over the remaining twelve holes. As the player herself acknowledged: “I’m happy with how I fought in the final stretch. I knew I wasn’t going to make the cut, but even so, I held on and competed until the last moment.” It wasn’t the first US Women’s Open dreamed of for Carla, but with much learning along the way.
Carlota, for her part, delivered her second over-par scorecard, 78 and 73, and bows out early. Since 2020, the player from Navarre hasn’t missed the cut in this tournament.
Among the big names that missed the cut are Rose Zhang (+2), Yuka Saso (+2), Lexi Thompson (+3), Leona Maguire (+4), and Lilia Vu (+18).
