Washington (United States) (AFP) – Yoon Ina conjured five birdies in a three-under par 69 on Friday to push her lead to five strokes in the Women’s PGA Championship, where Nelly Korda was six adrift in her bid for a third straight major title. Yoon, whose Thursday 63 matched the lowest first round in the history of the event, built a 36-hole total of 12-under 132 at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, Minnesota, where she’ll take the lead into the weekend in a major championship for the first time.
“It’s actually a really nice experience for me,” the South Korean said, adding she’d try to stave off nerves and “focus on my stuff and just have fun” for the next two days. South Korea Ryu Hae-ran fired eight birdies in a superb eight-under par 64 to charge into a group of four players sharing second on seven-under 137. World number one Korda, seeking to become just the third LPGA player to win the first three majors of the season after her victories in the Chevron Championship and US Women’s Open, posted a four-under par 68 and was tied on six-under 138 with South Korean Lee Dong-eun, who signed for a 69.
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Yoon said she tried not to look at the leaderboard as she opened the round with a two-shot lead. Four birdies in the first eight holes stretched her lead to as many as seven, but she slowed coming in with two bogeys and one birdie. Ryu, the 2023 LPGA Rookie of the Year and a three-time winner on the tour, was delighted with her “amazing” round, which featured four birdies on each side and a dazzling display on the greens, including birdie putts of 23 feet at the third and 18 feet at the fourth. She was joined on seven-under by fellow South Korean Kim A-lim, Canadian Brooke Henderson, and Japan’s Nasa Hataoka.
Henderson birdied her last three holes on the way to a four-under 68, and Hataoka picked up three strokes in two holes with an eagle at the par-five seventh and a birdie at eight — her penultimate hole — and signed for a 67. Kim had four birdies in a two-under 70. Yoon, 23, is thriving in her second year on the LPGA tour after serving a suspension on the KLPGA circuit for playing the wrong ball at the 2022 Korea Women’s Open and failing to declare it. She said she would try to embrace the “nerve-wracking” nature of defending a big lead, something Korda knows plenty about.
“It is hard to have a big lead going into the weekend,” the American star said. “I was there at Chevron and you do feel a little bit more pressure, like everyone is hunting you down.” As a chaser this time, Korda said: “I’m just going to focus on, as boring as it is, one shot at a time and see where that takes me.”
– ‘It’s just golf’ – Korda, who trailed by seven after the first round of the US Women’s Open and went on to win, had four birdies in her first nine holes but developed “a case of the hooks” coming in. “It’s just golf,” she said. “It’s funny, right? It always kind of humbles you, and you’re always scratching your head a little bit in some ways.” Figured it out going down the stretch, so pleased with my day,” she said.
Australian Karis Davidson, who started the day in second place two shots off the lead, fell into a group on five-under with a two-over 74 that included a pair of double bogeys. “I felt a little bit under pressure today actually,” Davidson said. “I’ve never been in contention in a major after the first round, so it was a little bit of a different experience for me.”
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