Swedish rookie Ingrid Lindblad produced two strings of four consecutive birdies on Friday, and she jumped into a tie for first place at the JM Eagle LA Championship in Los Angeles.
Lindblad carded a 9-under-par 63 at El Caballero Country Club, leaving her at 13-under 131 through two rounds. She is level with first-round co-leader Ashleigh Buhai of South Africa, who posted a 68 on Friday.
Australia’s Minjee Lee charged into second place at 12 under with a second-round 65.
The other first-round co-leader, China’s Yan Liu, is tied for fourth at 11 under after a 70. Lauren Coughlin (second-round 67) and Japan’s Miyu Yamashita (65) also are at 11 under.
Andrea Lee (65), Thailand’s Pajaree Anannarukarn (65) and three South Korean players, Jin Hee Im (66), Sei Young Kim (68) and Jenny Shin (69) are all at 10 under, tied for seventh.
World No. 1 Nelly Korda produced a 68 on Friday, leaving her tied for 12th at 9 under. Two-time defending champion Hannah Green of Australia is another shot back, tied for 20th, after a 67.
Lindblad, 25, appeared in just three previous tournaments since joining the tour this year, and her best result was a tie for 38th at the Ford Championship last month.
On Friday, she logged 10 birdies, including strings from No. 3 to No. 6 and from No. 11 to No. 14. Her lone bogey came on the par-4 10th hole. The result was her best-ever round on a par-72 course.
“I just read the greens really well so it was like every putt I stood over I’m like, ‘OK, this has a chance to go in,’ ” Lindblad said. “… Made a couple of these like good 10-footers, 17 footers, so it wasn’t just tap-ins, tap-ins for par. … Feel like (the score) could have been lower, too.”
The results came after Lindblad made a tweak to her game following the first round.
“Yesterday the first couple holes I couldn’t hit the center of the face with the driver,” she said. “It was like high, low. I don’t know if anyone saw my driving distance on hole 11. It was 206 yards and it was because I hit a low right and it caught a tree.
“So kind of hit a couple balls on the range yesterday, worked on my ball position, and just put it a hair higher up in my stance and hit my driver a lot better today.”
Buhai opened her second round with a birdie, then followed immediately with her lone bogey of the day. She added four more birdies the rest of the way.
Minjee Lee logged a bogey-free day to move into contention.
“Hit it really solid,” she said. “Holed quite a number of good length putts. The greens were a little bit … softer, but for the most part they were releasing out. So I felt like I wasn’t right next to the holes, so I holed a bunch of really nice length putts.”
–Field Level Media
