PITTSFORD, New York (AP) ― Morgan Pressel slogged through rain and muck to take the lead Saturday after two rounds in the LPGA Championship. Next up is a 36-hole marathon Sunday.
“I run a lot,” Pressel said, laughing. “I’m in plenty good of enough shape to get through 36 holes tomorrow.”
She shot a 2-under 70 on Saturday at Locust Hill to reach 6-under 138 ― two shots ahead of the top-ranked Park In-bee and Chella Choi in the second LPGA Tour major of the season.
Park had a 68 to give herself an opportunity to add to her three wins already this season, including the Kraft Nabisco Championship in April. Choi struggled with a 73 to relinquish her first-round lead.
Morgan Pressel watches her tee shot on the ninth hole on Saturday. (AP-Yonhap News)
Shin Ji-yai, Amy Yang and Sarah Jane Smith were tied for fourth at 3 under. And there were seven more players at 1 under or better after two rounds, which should make for a long and topsy-turvy final day.
The change in schedule came after nearly five inches of rain fell Thursday, forcing officials to postpone the first round.
“It’s going to be very tough physically, I mean, especially walking on these wet fairways,” Park said. “There’s going to be many holes, but yeah, just try not to lose my focus.”
A light and intermittent drizzle fell through most of Saturday morning further drenching the 6,500-yard course. Then there were two brief but heavy downpours in the mid-afternoon before the rain finally relented after about 2:30 p.m.
That led to soppy fairways. It made the slick, overgrown rough even more difficult to hit out of. And even hitting the greens didn’t guarantee relief.
Pressel’s tee shot on the par-3 seventh plugged 20 feet below the hole, from where she two-putted. That was actually fine with her. With a laugh, she was thankful the ball stuck where it did because it was a better place than above the hole.
St. Jude Classic
MEMPHIS, Tennessee (AP) ― Rookie Shawn Stefani has been through enough scrambling around the mini-tours trying to make it to the PGA Tour that a quadruple bogey wasn’t going to shake his confidence or his concentration.
Even if it cost him the lead.
Stefani overcame the bad hole that dropped him down Saturday and shot a 4-under 66 to take the third-round lead in the St. Jude Classic.
“I feel like I hit one bad shot on 11, and that was the putt that I missed for a triple,” Stefani said showing off his sense of humor. “I know that sounds crazy, but you know I hit the club that I wanted to hit. Unfortunately, was the wrong club at the wrong time.”
The 31-year-old Texan rebounded with four birdies over his final five holes to move back atop the leaderboard. He finished with eight birdies to go with that quadruple bogey to reach 12-under 198 at TPC Southwind.
“It’s who gets over it fastest and who moves on the fastest,” Stefani said. “And to finish the way I did with three birdies on the last three was great. But I was just out there just playing the game and having fun. That’s what I’m here for is to play the best I can and have fun with it, and I did that today.”
Harris English was a stroke back after a 69, finishing out of the lead for the first time this week.
He sounded happy it wasn’t worse after playing with Stefani.