New York (AFP) – Chinese rookie Miranda Wang birdied the last three holes to seize a two-stroke lead when darkness halted Friday’s storm-hit second round of the LPGA FM Championship at TPC Boston. The 26-year-old LPGA newcomer, who played collegiate golf in the United States, birdied three of the first four holes then closed with birdies at the par-three 16th, par-four 17th and par-five 18th. That was enough for her to shoot a five-under par 67 and stand on 11-under 133 for 36 holes, two strokes ahead of Sweden’s Madelene Sagstrom when sunset ended a stop-and-start day with half the field of 144 still on the course.
“It was really discontinuous,” Wang said. “It shows three birdies in a row, but for me it was like one shot at a time, and also with all the stops in the way I was just trying to hit as good as I can.” Three total stoppages for heavy rain and lightning kept players scrambling. Sagstrom fired a bogey-free 66 to stand on 135, one stroke ahead of Australian Hannah Green, Spain’s Azahara Munoz, and Norway’s Celine Borge.
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Wang couldn’t quite finish her round before the third stoppage, which lasted some two and a half hours. “We’ve had plenty of experience with weather,” she said. “I was not in any panic anyway, so it was good.” In her closing birdie hat trick, the last came after she hit her approach at 18 to 10 feet just before the horn, then returned two and a half hours later to sink the putt and double her lead.
“I didn’t expect the weather,” Wang said. “We just have to face it and prepare mentally, physically for the thunderstorms and just try to stay calm and every time warm up just like you didn’t stop and just keep going.” Two earlier stoppages lasted for almost three hours combined, dumping almost half an inch of rain and delaying the end of round two until Saturday. Leading those still on the course were South Korean Kim Sei-young on eight-under through four holes and second-ranked American Nelly Korda on seven-under through four holes.
Sagstrom, 32, won her second career LPGA title in April at the Match Play tournament. Sagstrom birdied the sixth and par-five seventh holes then came out of the second delay and reeled off four birdies in a row from the 13th through the par-three 16th. That’s when she saw the next storm coming.
“We saw it coming on 16 and I go, ‘This is not great. Two breaks. That’s enough,'” Sagstrom said. “Clearly I needed the second one because I came out really hot after that. I found a little bit of rhythm, hit some good putts…I tried to hit it smart and made a few putts and that paid off.”
Green, a back-nine starter, made five birdies and a bogey to fire a second 68. She ran to her last green to beat the third stoppage. “I don’t think mentally I could have prepared myself for another delay,” Green said. “All of us in the last group were kind of happy to jog on the last hole. I really don’t think we would have finished had we not done that.”
The joggers also included Thailand’s top-ranked Jeeno Thitikul, who shot 66 to stand on 137 with England’s Jodi Ewart Shadoff, South Korean Lee6 Jeong-eun, and Japan’s Ayaka Furue and Miya Yamashita, who won the Women’s British Open earlier this month. “The security guard told us it was going to be a horn soon,” Jeeno said. “I was like, ‘Run, run let’s go.’ Start and stop is frustrating a little bit but glad to be done.”
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