ERIN, Wis. — Mao Saigo posted a 6-under 66 to steer the U.S. Girls’s Open after the second spherical’s Friday morning groupings at Erin Hills as she appears to win her second main of the 12 months.
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Saigo’s two-day whole of 8-under 136 provides her a three-stroke benefit over Nelly Korda, the world’s top-ranked participant.
Korda moved into second place by posting a 67. This was the very best U.S. Girls’s Open spherical ever for Korda, who has by no means completed increased than a tie for eighth on this occasion.
“I feel like I’ve had a very complicated relationship with U.S. Opens,” Korda mentioned, “but I’m happy to be in the position I am heading into the weekend.”
Saigo earned her first LPGA Tour title simply over a month in the past within the 12 months’s first main, as she sank a birdie putt to win a five-way playoff within the Chevron Championship at The Membership at Carlton Woods in The Woodlands, Texas.
The 23-year-old from Japan bounced again from some early misfortune Friday to maneuver atop the leaderboard.
Saigo began out at No. 10 and birded No. 11 and No. 12. She bogeyed the par-5 No. 14 when she bought a nasty break, together with her third shot hitting the flagstick, bouncing backward and rolling all the best way to a bunker. However she recovered by getting 4 birdies in a five-hole stretch from No. 16 to No. 2.
“I thought that was not my mistake,” Saigo mentioned by way of an interpreter. “I just thought to myself that it was just unlucky, and then I just changed my mind.”
Korda was practically as efficient. After not making a birdie till her 18th gap Thursday, Korda had seven of them Friday because of her improved placing.
“Honestly, I was hitting really good putts yesterday,” Korda mentioned. “I was hitting it exactly where I wanted to and they just weren’t falling. It was one of those days. Today I did the same thing.”
Jing Yan, Linn Grant and Chiara Tamburlini all completed their Friday morning classes at 4 beneath for the match, placing them 4 strokes behind Saigo. Tamburlini was tied with Korda for second place earlier than getting a bogey on No. 18.
Thursday’s first spherical had ended with Angel Yin, Julia Lopez Ramirez, 2020 champion A Lim Kim, Jinhee Im, Yealimi Noh and Rio Takeda in a six-way tie for the lead in spite of everything of them carded 68.
Lopez Ramirez posted a 74 and Yin recorded a 75 on Friday morning, placing Lopez Ramirez at 2 beneath and Yin at 1 beneath for the match. Kim, Im, Noh and Takeda have been set to tee off Friday afternoon on a course that measured 6,809 yards for the second spherical.
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