A South Korean is on top of the RICOH Women’s British Open leaderboard, but it’s not Inbee Park, its Rolex Rankings No. 4 and former U.S. Women’s Open champion Na Yeon Choi.
On a day that had rain, wind and then a drying sun, Choi shot a five-under 67 for the second consecutive day and finds herself with the solo lead heading into the weekend at 10-under. She is one shot ahead of Japan’s Miki Saiki who was the early clubhouse leader at nine-under. First round co-leader Morgan Pressel is in solo third at eight-under.
Choi played another excellent round where she played holes No. 1-thru-9 making four birdies. But unlike yesterday, her lone bogey of the round came in this section at the Par-4 seventh hole. Yesterday, she hit all 16 fairways, in contrast of just eight today. But still she managed to hit 16-of-18 greens-in-regulation, putting herself in position to have makeable putts.
Her impressions on her round today: “First of all, I'm very satisfied the last two rounds. You know, especially today, the weather wasn't good. It was very hard. But my focus was very good and my caddie helped me a lot.”
“And you know, I had a daily goal every day so I just tried to stick with the goal. It could be like par is 74 or 75 today, but I didn't care, like every hole, par 3, par 4, par 5, doesn't matter for me. I just try to play one shot at a time and I think that's why I had great results.”
An early-starter, Saiki’s 66 today was the day’s low round, thanks to her twice holing iron shots from over 100 yards. She eagled both the Par-4 fourth and seventh holes, as an eight-iron and wedge shot found the respective cups.
The 28-year-old Saiki is no stranger to low scores over the famous St. Andrews links. Back in the 2007 Women's British Open she carded a 67 in the final round and finished T-7th.
Pressel, the opening round co-leader, went bogey-free today, but managed only two birdies on the day. Those birdies came on holes No. 3 and 10 and she was able to manage par the rest of the way.
She seemed to eb happy with her performance today: “I played very well today. Didn't really put myself in any trouble. I only had one par putt of maybe about six or seven feet on 11 that was a tap-in. There's a lot of birdie putts out there.”
“I gave myself a lot of chances and they were scaring the hole but just didn't go in. On the last hole, I was ready to give a big fist-pump but that was in the middle of the hole but it was on the low side.”
Inbee Park's hopes of an historic fourth straight major title suffered a big blow when she scored a one-over 73 that left her on two-under for the tournament, eight shots off the lead. She was able to save one shot when she birdied 18th again today, but if she is to become the first player—male or female—to win four professional major championships in the same year, she’ll need some help.
Her greatest strength was her weakness today; even though she hit 15-of-16 fairways and reached 17-of-18 greens-in-regulation, she had to make 37 putts in the round. She’ll need to start sinking some birdies for two days and hope that they leaders come back to her.
You can sense that she tried but felt Lady Luck wasn’t by her said today: “A little bit of everything wasn't really working well out there today but it was very tough conditions. I just don't feel like I played horrible today. I think I grinded really well out there today. One-over today, a little bit unlucky with the draw, getting afternoon today, not playing in the morning when it's lovely but that's the way it is.”
The World’s No. 3, Suzann Pettersen, was on fire through the front nine. She made her fifth birdie of the day on the ninth hole and made the turn at seven-under. She couldn’t muster another birdie, but went bogey-free for the day and sits three-shots back, T-4th along with South Korean Jee Young Lee and American Nicole Castrale.
Sweden’s Mikaela Parmlid is solo seventh at six-under and is followed by a group of five players T-8th. World’s No. 2 Stacy Lewis and No. 5 So Yeon Ryu, along with American Angela Stafford, South Korean Hee Young Park and Japan’s Mamiko Higa are at five-under.
Lewis made the turn at seven-under with two birdies in the front-nine, but two bogeys on 11 and 16 dropped her back to even-par for the day. Ryu on the other hand, was at seven-under and bogey-free thru 12 holes. But three bogeys and a birdie in the next five holes settled her fate to close at five-under.
American Paula Creamer managed to get to six-under after her third birdie of the day on the seventh hole, but lost ground when all she could manage was two bogeys the rest of the way. She played at even-par today and is T-13th at four-under.
Catriona Matthew, the 2009 Champion and local favorite, had three bogeys and one birdie to finish with a two-over 74 and is T-22nd at two-under, along with Inbee Park and six other players.
England’s Georgia Hall leads all amateurs at one-under and is one of four amateurs to make the cut. Another English amateur, Emily Taylor and France’s Celine Boutier are at even-par. The World’s No. 1 amateur, 17-year-old New Zealander phenom Lydia Ko, barely made the cut playing at one-over for the tournament.
The cut-line of the Top 65 and ties was set at one-over, which meant that Yani Tseng (two-over), Ai Miyazato (four-over), Karrie Webb (six-over), Lexi Thompson (eight-over) and Beatriz Recari (10-over) missed the cut.
English youngster Charley Hull, 17, followed up her disappointing 76 on day one with a solid 72 of two birdies and two bogeys. She also missed the cut at four-over.