Japan’s Miyu Yamashita sits at the top of the leaderboard on nine-under-par at the halfway stage of the Aramco Korea Championship.
The major champion followed up her opening round of 67 (-5) with a bogey-free 68 (-4) on the second day at New Korea Country Club.
Yamashita rolled in birdies on her second, sixth, 16 and 17th holes to move to nine-under-par and hold a two-shot lead at the 36-hole mark.
“I like this course. Today was a no bogey round. My tee shots and second shots were good. My shots were very nice today compared to yesterday,” said Yamashita. “I really enjoy to play with big galleries and there are so many Korean fans, I really enjoy playing in front of lots of fans.
“I’m still a little bit tired from the travel from Hawaii, but I’m okay. There’s good food here. I like Korean food. I’m really happy to play this event and the rest of the days I want to enjoy the tournament.”
Sweden’s Louise Rydqvist and Korea’s Sung Hyun Park share second place on seven-under-par after rounds of 67 (-5) and 69 (-3), respectively.
LET rookie Rydqvist fired a bogey-free 67 (-5) to move herself up the leaderboard with birdies on the sixth, ninth, 14th, 15th, and 16th holes.
“It was really solid from start to finish. I really enjoyed it. I had a lovely group, who had a lot of fun out there, and I felt like my head was where my feet were at all times, which is the key for good scores,” said Rydqvist.
“You definitely have to hit a lot of fairways to attack these greens. They’re so slick and fast, and some of them are really firm, so getting the ball in the fairway to start with and then getting the putter hot. That’s what you need.
“It’s my first time in Korea, but it’s quite scoreable out there and I’m really enjoying it. The game felt pretty good. I just had to sort out the jet lag and recovery which I think I did pretty good. I’m just trying to keep in the presence for the weekend and really looking forward to it.”
Korea’s Park had an up-and-down round with a double bogey on third before back-to-back birdies on four and five.
The two-time major champion made another birdie on the eighth before she holed her eagle putt from off the green on 17 to get to seven-under-par on the leaderboard.
“There were some mistakes out there, but I finished my round well, so I’m happy. It made me more concentrated after that double bogey; my focus was to get a better score out of the first nine,” said Park.
“Then for the second half, it wasn’t going in and then I had a good eagle putt and I’m excited about the weekend. It’s been a while since I’ve been up the top of the leaderboard, but my main goal is to focus and communicate more with the caddie going into the weekend.”
Five players are in a tie for fourth place with Germany’s Alexandra Försterling, Canada’s Huang, America’s Morgan, Czechia’s Kouskova and Chinese Taipei’s Yani Tseng.
Four-time LET winner Försterling carded a round of 69 (-3) for the second day in a row which included four birdies and one bogey.
“I’m overall very happy with my first two days and happy with how my putter is at the moment. I could improve my long game here and there, but overall, I’m very happy,” said the German.
“It’s a fun course. It’s tricky obviously. The greens are very tricky. Off the tee is also not the easiest, but I like a challenge and I really enjoy it. Today was good because we all made a lot of putts and holed a lot of birdies, so that was nice to see and that also motivated me.
“I think I’m going to do what I did the last two days, I don’t think I’m going to change too much. I’m happy with my course management and hopefully, I can keep rolling in some more putts.”
PIF London Championship winner Anna Huang fired a bogey-free 67 (-5) on day two to surge her up the leaderboard.
“It’s been a while since I played some tournament golf, yesterday I was just trying to get back into the flow of things. It was a bit rough starting out, today I think I managed to pull myself together and get back into it,” said Huang.
“Covid hit me really hard this year, I was just in my bed for almost a month straight. I was really bummed out to miss La Sella and defend. I had to focus on my recovery and I think I’m 90% better.
“In the practice round, I did think it was really tricky, maybe because my driver was going everywhere but I think the greens here are probably the hardest part. There’s a lot of sneaky slopes you’ve got to be careful of, and you have got to place yourself in the right spots.”
Six players are one shot further back with Wales’ Lydia Hall, Ecuador’s Daniela Darquea, two-time defending champion Hyo Joo Kim, Czechia’s Patricie Mackova, Hong Kong’s Ginnie Ding and Australia’s Sarah Kemp all in T9.
The cut fell at +1 with 66 players making it through to the weekend. Round three will begin at 7.46 am (local time) at New Korea Country Club with the leading group teeing off at 12.03 pm.
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