Minami Katsu carded a course-record 11-under 61 on Friday to seize a two-stroke lead after the second round at the Buick LPGA Shanghai event.
Katsu moved to 13-under after collecting 12 birdies against one bogey at the Qizhong Garden Golf Club. The 27-year-old Japanese golfer capped her scintillating round in style by rolling in a 39-foot birdie putt on No, 18.
“Yeah, that was a hard putt. I hit it too hard and I was like, ‘Oh, boy. Why did I hit that so hard?'” Katsu said of her finishing putt. “Luckily it was going toward the hole, so I was hoping hit the back edge of the cup and just popped up a couple inches and went right into the hole. So felt like I was really lucky.”
Lucky or not, Katsu knows there are 36 more holes to play.
“Honestly I’m very happy with the record that I made today,” she said. “Obviously we still got two more days to play, so probably no celebration. I’ll try to keep it simple.”
Katsu broke Sei Young Kim’s record set last year by one stroke. She is bidding for her first victory on the LPGA Tour, although she has eight victories on the JLPGA Tour.
She leads South Korean Ina Yoon, who resides in second place at 11-under after recording a 68 on Friday.
Yoon overcame a bogey on her first hole by recording five birdies over the course of her round.
Jenny Bae (69), who is tied with Lindy Duncan (67) for third place at 10-uinder, was in contention for the lead before hitting into a bunker on the 18th hole. A shot into the water ultimately led to a triple bogey.
First-round leader Arpichaya Yubol (71) is in a tie for fifth place at 9-under with fellow Thailand native Jeeno Thitikul (70) and South Korean Somi Lee (67).
“Because LPGA is so tough, hard competition, the drills I do is like the distance within 100 meters,” Lee said. “If I have a chance within 100 meters I want to get a birdie so that’s what I’m focused on and I try to do it every day without skipping a single day.”
Defending champion Ruoning Yin of China shot a 68 on Thursday to move into a tie for 22nd place at 5-under.
Wei-Ling Hsu of Chinese Taipei highlighted her round of 68 with a hole-in-one at the par-3 second hold. She used a 7-iron.
–Field Level Media
