South Korea's Ryu So-Yeon and Sweden's Anna Nordqvist fired five-under par 67s Friday to share the second round lead with first round leader Thailand's Pornanong Phatlum at the LPGA Lorena Ochoa Invitational.
Five players had caught Phatlum at eight-under, but she birdied the 16th to briefly lead by herself. As she parred the last two holes, Nordqvist and Ryu joined her atop the leaderboard by finishing with birdies at the Par-5 18th, leaving them tied at the top of the leaderboard at nine-under 135 at the halfway mark in the Guadalajara Country Club.
Ryu, Rolex Rankings No. 4, played the front nine level but opened the back nine with back-to-back birdies and birdied 14th and 16th as well as the last. Overall she recorded six birdies and one bogey en route to a second-round five-under 67.
She finished sixth last year here and is looking for her first win since her seven-stroke win at the Jamie Farr Toledo Classic in August of last year.
Nordqvist opened with a birdie, followed with her only bogey at the third, then birdied the seventh and back-to-back birdies at 11th and 12th plus another at 15th allowed her to close with a birdie. Like Ryu, he fired a second-round five-under 67 that included six birdies and one bogey.
The Swede is looking to capture her first LPGA Tour victory since the 2009 LPGA Tour Championship Presented by Rolex,
Phatlum had back-to-back birdies at the Par-3 sixth and seven, then answered her lone bogey at the eighth with a birdie to close the front nine. She fired eight pars and a birdie at the 16th on the back side. She followed-up her six-under 66 Thursrday with a three-under 69 on Friday that included four birdies and one bogey.
There were a dozen players within three shots of the lead and the group tied for fourth at 136 included Rolex Rankings No. 1 Inbee Park, Gerina Piller and American 18-year-old Lexi Thompson, who shot the tournament's low round of 64.
Lizette Salas (67) and 2010 champion I.K. Kim (67) are tied for seventh place at seven-under 137.
While Park is trying to become the first South Korean to claim LPGA seasonal Player of the Year honors, following her trail closely for that honor is Rolex Rankings No. 2, Norway’s Suzann Pettersen, the 2010 runner-up.
Pettersen and Karine Icher both shot 68 in round two. They share ninth at six-under with Rolex Rankings No. 3, American Stacy Lewis (66) and Jenny Shin (69).
Cristie Kerr, last year's winner who was last in the 36-player field after the first round, moved up the leaderboard with a 67 that put her in solo 27th place at even-par 144.
All five former champions are in the field this week. Along with Kim and Kerr, 2009 winner Michelle Wie is tied for 20th, 2011 champ Catriona Matthew is alone in 28th and 2008 titlist Angela Stanford shares 32nd place.
The action continues Saturday at 10:20 am local time when the threesome of Beatriz Recari, Alejandro Llaneza and Taylor Collins take the first tee.