Katherine Hull completed Round Two at -5, atop the leaderboard at the ADT Championship.  Angela Stanford wound up second at -4 while Paula Creamer, Christina Kim and In-Kyung Kim were third at -2.

The final holes at Trump International along with increasing afternoon winds forced the cut line upwards as multiple players stumbled coming home.  Karrie Webb posted a birdie-less 40 on the back nine but made the cut in 16^th place at +3.  Here are all the scores with those above the line advancing to Saturday:

-5  Katherine Hull

-4  Angela Park

-2  Paula Creamer, Christina Kim, In-Kyung Kim

-1  Jeong Jang, Angela Park

E   Ji-Yai Shin, Seon Hwa Lee

+1 Suzann Pettersen, Eun-Hee Ji, Jee Young Lee, Helen Alfredsson, Sun Young Yoo

+2 Karen Stupples

+3 Karrie Webb

=====================================

+4 Na Yeon Choi

+5 Lorena Ochoa, Annika Sorenstam, Cristie Kerr, Laura Diaz

+5 Hee-Won Han, Maria Hjorth, Candie Kung

+6 Song-Hee Kim, Morgan Pressel, Nicole Castrale

+7 Yani Tseng

+9 Meena Lee

+12 Shanshan Feng

+13 Ji Young Oh

The stories of scorecards exploding are too numerous to tell in their entirety but I will relate a few.  Ji Young Oh was -1 through 6 holes - she played the last 12 holes in +14(!), with two doubles and a quintuple-bogey 9 at the par-4 16th.  Na Yeon Choi was even par through 12 but double-bogeys at 13 and 15 cost her one shot too many.  Candie Kung reached 18 at +3 but double-bogeyed to fall out.  Lorena Ochoa was +2 with three to go but bogeyed 16 and doubled 17.  Even the players who made it through were not immune, though they started with enough cushion to absorb the damage.  Eun-Hee Ji was -6 through 15 and leading the event, until she took a triple-bogey 7 at 16, a bogey at 17 and another triple-bogey 7 at 18 to finish +1!  Jee Young Lee bogeyed four times in six holes to fall to +2 but gave herself some breathing room with a birdie (!!) at 18.

Yet somehow, through all this carnage, Katherine Hull played bogey-less golf (with a lone birdie at 15) while Angela Stanford bogeyed only once while posting a 67 that was three strokes better than any other round on Friday.  Just what you might expect from the two hottest players in the world.

So six of my eight choices (plus my pick to win, Stanford) advance to the weekend.  Hopefully you'll excuse my two mistakes, Ochoa and Kerr.  You probably noticed that Annika Sorenstam didn't make it, making this her third straight year of this format without getting past the first cut.  It's a bit of a letdown for her final LPGA tournament and part of a large letdown for the TV producers.  No Sorenstam, Ochoa, Kerr, Tseng, Pressel or even Diaz for the weekend audience.  You can be sure NBC is sweating over whether Paula Creamer can get through to the final eight.

I'm watching the replay coverage on GC right now.  If I see anything worth adding, I will update.

UPDATE:  Because Choi missed the cut, Yani Tseng clinched the 2008 Rookie of the Year Award.  And because Ochoa missed the cut, Creamer can steal the money title by winning.  Paula very nearly didn't play today - she was sick with the flu overnight.

Stupples birdied 17 from the fringe about 20 feet away and then saved par at 18 with a tricky downhill 10-footer.  Choi had 30 feet for birdie to tie Webb and force a playoff for the last spot but her putt stopped a few inches short.

Maybe I'm being too harsh on this course.  Maybe players of this caliber should be expected to avoid coming up short and a little right on a finishing hole with water down the right side, even if every approach has to be played with the ball below their feet from around 175 yards away in winds approaching 20mph.  All I know is, Nicole Castrale got knocked out last year and Candie Kung did the same this year when their approaches to 18 landed a little short of the green and a little right, and all three times (Nicole did it twice) the ball picks up speed as it rolls down the bikini-waxed slope into the water.  The same thing happened to Eun-Hee Ji as she finished today but she fortunately had the strokes to spare.  So...why not play the ball left?  Well, if you find the cabbage-patch rough over there, your chip shot could slide completely off the green and find the water anyway.  I'm sorry ADT is leaving the LPGA fold but Trump International can't get out the door quick enough for me.