LPGA Tour Championship - 2nd Round

Amy Yang leads by three strokes after (nearly) two rounds of the LPGA Tour Championship.  Seon Hwa Lee and Maria Hjorth are tied for second at -4 while Julieta Granada is fourth at -3.  Four players including Player of the Year candidate Cristie Kerr are tied for fifth at -2.

After taking three bogeys on the front nine, Yang caught fire on the back and dropped a 15-footer to birdie 18 and apparently take a five-shot lead.  While checking scorecards, a birdie recorded at 13 was changed to a par, which left Amy at -7.  Lee had suffered bogeys at 3 and 6 before she dropped a 20-footer at 8 (her 17^th) to move back into solo second.  About ninety minutes later, Hjorth completed a run of five birdies in seven holes to reach -5.  A bogey at 16 dropped Maria back into the tie for second and she finished her round just before play was called on account of darkness, at 5:30.  There will be twelve groups on the course at 7:00 Saturday morning to complete Round Two and settle the cut.  Currently at a lofty +8, it would be the highest cut for a non-major all season.  Even though that appears to be nearly locked in, I'll wait until that is official before posting any definitive money list race info.

What I can be definitive about - Kerr and Na Yeon Choi both posted 71 so Cristie remains approximately four shots behind NYC in the Vare Trophy race.  Kerr is five shots out of the lead and Choi is seven behind, so each is still in the running for the victory and the Player of the Year race.  Yani Tseng is +4 T35, eleven shots behind - her chances of winning are slim indeed but her POY chances are still very good.  Ai Miyazato was briefly two shots on the bad side of the cut but she finished at +8 to (most likely) barely make it to Saturday, as did Jiyai Shin.  A victory by either is now next to impossible.

Natalie Gulbis withdrew before her 7:30 tee time - we can probably guess why.  Jimin Jeong and Misun Cho withdrew during the round - those two weren't going to make the cut anyway.  Cho will have to regroup for Q-School and Jeong will have to hope that two players don't pass her up for the Top 125 or she will be in the same boat.

During the GC coverage, Rich Lerner interviewed Commissioner Michael Whan and discussed (among other things) the 2011 schedule.  Whan stated that the schedule has not officially been announced yet because the Tour didn't want to distract anyone from the final event and the season-ending races.  He emphasized that the schedule will have "at least as many" events as in 2010.  Earlier in the day, Lerner had commented that there will be only nine domestic events so it appears a copy of that schedule is already circulating.  If that number is indeed correct, the Commissioner probably did us all a favor heading off the negative press such an announcement would surely have raised.