{"id":914553,"date":"2026-10-03T10:40:15","date_gmt":"2026-10-03T10:40:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/914553\/"},"modified":"2026-10-03T10:40:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-03T10:40:15","slug":"thitikul-mack-share-lead-as-choi-heads-aussie-charge-australian-golf-digest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/914553\/","title":{"rendered":"Thitikul, Mack share lead as Choi heads Aussie charge \u2013 Australian Golf Digest"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>World No.2 golfer Jeeno Thitikul made a 12-foot birdie putt on the par-5 18th to fire a seven-under 65 and grab a share of the second-round lead at the LOTTE Championship in Hawaii, with Australia\u2019s Robyn Choi well within striking distance.<\/p>\n<p>Seeking her fourth LPGA Tour victory of the year, the 23-year-old from Thailand was bogey-free after 36 holes at Hoakalei Country Club on Friday (Saturday AEST).<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was lucky for us to not have that much gusts,\u201d Thitikul said after mostly calm afternoon conditions followed rain and wind early in the opening round.<\/p>\n<p>Germany\u2019s Polly Mack also closed with a birdie on 18 for a 65 to match Thitikul at 12-under 132.<\/p>\n<p>Italian golfer Carolina Melgrati (68, 65) and South Korea\u2019s Ina Yoon (66, 67) were a stroke back.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>First-round leader A Lim Kim (69), who won this event in 2024, was 10 under with Michelle Zhang (67).\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Japanese pair Nasa Hataoka (65) and Miyu Yamashita (67) were nine under.<\/p>\n<p>Choi was the leading Australian at seven under, five shots behind the leaders.<\/p>\n<p>    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1791024015_739_.jpeg\" alt=\"Robyn Choi\"\/>Robyn Choi was the leading Australian after two rounds in Honolulu. (<a href=\"https:\/\/photos.aap.com.au\/search\/20260323136802493106\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">AP PHOTO<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>Choi followed up her first-round 68 with a 69 on Friday to be sitting in a tie for 14th place.<\/p>\n<p>Grace Kim was one shot behind her compatriot Choi at six under, sharing 22nd place after shooting a 69 in each of the first two rounds.<\/p>\n<p>Cassie Porter (73, 68) and Gabriela Russels (71, 70) were the only other Australians to make it to the weekend, both in a tie for 57th place at three under.<\/p>\n<p>Steph Kyriacou (70, 72), Hanna Green (73, 70) and Momo Sugiyama (74, 70) all missed the cut.<\/p>\n<p>Defending champion \u2060Youmin Hwang of South Korea recovered from an opening 72 by shooting 66, leaving her tied for 22nd place.<\/p>\n<p>The tournament leads to a month of events in Asia, starting with the Buick LPGA Shanghai from October 15-18.<\/p>\n<p>\u2013 with AAP, Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"World No.2 golfer Jeeno Thitikul made a 12-foot birdie putt on the par-5 18th to fire a seven-under&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":914554,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,405163,10956,438634,85,12632],"class_list":["post-914553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-golf","tag-overseas-sport","tag-pacific","tag-pacific-island-nations","tag-sports","tag-women"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/914553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=914553"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/914553\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/914554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=914553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=914553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=914553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}