LPGA Championship - 2nd Round

Anna Nordqvist, a Swedish rookie making only her seventh career LPGA start, leads the LPGA Championship by one stroke.  Nicole Castrale is in second place at -7, Katherine Hull and Lindsey Wright are tied for third at -6 and three players are tied for fifth at -5 - Na Yeon Choi, Hee-Won Han and Kyeong Bae.

Nordqvist started her day on the back nine and birdied three times in her first eight holes to reach -9 and take a three-shot lead.  Bogeys at 18 and 4 brought Anna back to the pack but a closing birdie at 9 gave her the overnight lead.  Castrale began the day atop the board but started out crashing and burning.  Her tee shot at 12 found the water and resulted in a double-bogey.  Nicole followed that disaster with a bogey at 14, dropping her back to -4.  She immediately turned things around with a great third shot into the par-5 15^th to set up birdie and two more birdies at 1 and 7 completed her return to the -7 mark she started the day with.

With the front two unable to go low a second straight day, several players took the opportunity to close in.  Wright and Hull posted 68 and 69 respectively while Han and Bae moved up with 69s.  Lorena Ochoa and Jiyai Shin climbed into a tie for eleventh with sub-70 rounds of their own.  The Friday scores were noticeably higher even though the playing conditions were still very good (unless the winds picked up after GC went off the air).

The cut was +3 and sent home Hee Young Park, Wendy Ward, Morgan Pressel, Jane Park, Christina Kim, Vicky Hurst and Mi Hyun Kim.  One big surprise going home is Shanshan Feng, who followed her Thursday 67 with an 82.  A 9 at the par-4 6^th would have been bad enough, but her double-bogey at 9 (her final hole) wound up putting her over the number.  Cristie Kerr was on the outside looking in until she played her last 12 holes in -3 to reach +2.  Paula Creamer was right on the number at the turn but played the front nine in 33 to reach even par.  With Yani Tseng also at even and Suzann Pettersen at +1, Ochoa is the only one of my five favorites in contention at the moment.  We'll see if Moving Day changes any of that.