U.S. Women's Open - 2nd Round

Paula Creamer and Sakura Yokomine are tied at even par through two rounds of the U.S. Women's Open.  Cristie Kerr and Brittany Lang are tied for third at +1 while Suzann Pettersen, Sophie Gustafson and Christina Kim are tied for fifth at +2.

Delayed by yesterday's thunderstorms, the second round was completed just before 2pm today.  The Top 60 players plus ties move on to Round Three which starts momentarily.  The cut of +10 sends home such luminaries as Anna Nordqvist, Michelle Wie, Catriona Matthew, Sun Young Yoo, Seon Hwa Lee, Momoko Ueda, Se Ri Pak, Hee-Won Han and Juli Inkster.

Gustafson started the day up by one and quickly extended her lead to three with birdies at 2, 3 and 5.  She immediately came back to earth, however - bogey at 6, double at 7 and another bogey at 8 dropped her to second place.  Creamer birdied 6, 7 and 9 to go into the lead at -1 but she too couldn't stand prosperity as she doubled 10 and bogeyed 12.  Paula righted the ship just as quickly with birdie at 13 and another at 17, getting to the clubhouse at even par.  Yokomine was one of the twelve players at +2 starting the day and she took nary a bogey as she birdied 14 (her fifth) and 4, then closed out with five straight pars.  Gustafson didn't fade completely - after a birdie/bogey exchange at 9 and 10, she birdied 14 to rejoin the lead at even par.  Sophie did stumble again with bogeys at 16 and 18, putting the finishing damper on what had started out as a wonderful day.  Pettersen rallied on the back nine.  Standing +4 through 10 holes, Suzann birdied 11 and 13, bogeyed 15, then birdied 17 to reach the Top 5.

In-Kyung Kim made a nice move up the board, playing her last 15 holes in -3.  Inky is now tied for eighth at +3 with among others, Stacy Lewis and Amy Yang, who both finished yesterday.  Maria Hjorth made a similar run, gaining three strokes to par over her last eight holes.  Jeong Jang was briefly tied for the lead at even par but bogey at 15 and a double at 18 leaves her in the T8 as well.  Angela Stanford was tied for second early but could never crack into red numbers and her back-nine 38 leaves her at +3.  Wendy Ward was also even par with six to play but three bogeys later...

Round Three gets underway at 2:35 EDT, going off in threesomes on both nines.  Here are the groupings.  The live coverage on NBC begins at 3pm.