Jul 26, 2024; Calgary, Alberta, CAN; Megan Khang performs her shot from the 14th tee throughout the second spherical of the CPKC Ladies’s Open golf event. Necessary Credit score: Sergei Belski-USA TODAY Sports activities Megan Khang joined Australian Minjee Lee atop the 36-hole leaderboard on the ISPS Handa Ladies’s Scottish Open on Friday as a handful of gamers started to interrupt from the pack in Ayrshire, Scotland.
Khang shot her second straight spherical of 68 and Lee posted a 69 to get to 8-under 136. They’ve a two-stroke lead over Lauren Coughlin (69), New Zealand’s Lydia Ko (69) and Englishwoman Charley Hull (68).
No different participant is decrease than 3 below for the event (Germany’s Esther Henseleit and China’s Mary Liu).
Khang, a 26-year-old from Massachusetts, has only one LPGA win to her identify however entered the week No. 27 in factors for the season-long Race to the CME Globe. Khang put up six birdies and two bogeys at Dundonald Hyperlinks Friday.
That included a chip-in birdie for the second straight day. Friday’s got here on the par-5 third gap, as Khang helpfully put some backspin on her ball that despatched it straight into the cup.
“I used to be within the mindset of, ‘Let’s attempt to hit it shut and make par,'” Khang stated. “Once more, , hit a extremely good chip and type of bounced again and spun somewhat again into the outlet. So stuff like that type of helps you type of keep inside your self and never get too annoyed on the market. Regardless that you hit an excellent tee shot and should not get the bounce you need, you possibly can all the time gap out from wherever, I assume.”
Lee started on the again 9 and had her huge stretch halfway by her spherical, making all 4 of her birdies between Nos. 17 and three.
“I’d like to win and that’s what we try for as gamers,” Lee stated. “However , I am simply going to do what I can management, and clearly I am unable to management what different persons are doing. I will simply attempt my highest, and if that occurs to be a win, that is nice. But when it would not, it is also a part of my course of, too.”
The tie for third options two gamers within the prime six of the CME Globe standings. Coughlin is fifth in factors after she earned her first profession LPGA win final month on the CPKC Ladies’s Open. She had a bogey-free spherical Friday after making pars for her whole first 9 (the again 9).
“I felt simply clearly wonderful after the win,” Coughlin stated. “However I really feel like I nonetheless need to do it once more and so I am fascinated by larger targets and truthfully simply feeling tremendous grateful and simply attempting to maintain doing what I am doing and clearly it was working. So I am simply probably not altering something.”
Ko, who gained in January earlier than selecting up the gold medal on the Olympics final week, is sixth in CME Globe factors. She shot her second straight 69 by making 4 birdies to only one bogey.
“It is numerous creativity is required when the wind is that this a lot as a result of I’ve to hit a 3-wood from 175 (yards), which is often a 5-iron distance,” Ko stated. “I feel it is type of out of the odd conditions, however you simply have to regulate to the conditions actually fast.”
Hull’s card was a lot busier than her counterparts. She eagled the par-5 18th (her ninth gap of the day) to go along with six birdies and 4 bogeys.
Notables to overlook the lower of 4 over par included Ally Ewing (6 over), Moriya Jutanugarn of Thailand (6 over) and Maja Stark of Sweden (7 over).
–Area Degree Media