LYTHAM ST. ANNES, England \u2014 Haeran Ryu\u00a0birdied No. 18\u00a0to complete a 2-under 69 for a one-shot lead after two rounds of the British Women\u2019s Open on Friday as the South Korean star pursues a third consecutive major victory.<\/p>\n
Ryu overcame a tough start \u2014 including a double bogey on the par-3 5th \u2014 to tally five birdies and reach 7 under overall at Royal Lytham & St. Annes.<\/p>\n
Shiho Kuwaki of Japan was one shot back after her 70, and overnight leader Jeeno Thitikul and Yealimi Noh were tied for third, both two strokes behind Ryu.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’m just trying to have fun on the course because this course is (very) stressful,\u201d Ryu said, citing \u201ca lot of bunkers\u201d plus windy conditions.<\/p>\n
Not since Inbee Park in 2013 has anyone claimed three straight majors. Ryu won the Women\u2019s PGA at Hazeltine and\u00a0closed with 60 to win the Evian Championship.<\/p>\n
\u201c(There are) a lot of great players in here, so that\u2019s why I just want to think about my golf,\u201d she added. \u201cBecause this is a major, nobody knows what comes up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brooke Henderson of Smiths Falls, Ont., shot 72 to sit at 2 over in a group tied for 31st, while Vancouver’s Anna Huang missed the cut.<\/p>\n
Thitikul, still in pursuit of her first victory at a major, brought\u00a0a two-stroke lead\u00a0over Kuwaki and Ryu into day two but made three bogeys in her 73.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not hitting like as close to the pin as yesterday,\u201d Thitikul said. \u201cMaybe the pin position was kind of hard, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kuwaki led after her birdie on 16 and following Thitikul\u2019s second bogey of the day \u2014 on the par-5 11th when the Thai star\u2019s putt for par didn\u2019t drop.<\/p>\n
Noh bounced back from a double bogey on the par-4 No. 4 with back-to-back birdies in her 70.<\/p>\n
Thitikul, one of only two players to have been No. 1 in the women\u2019s world ranking without ever having won a major, had a bogey-free 64 in the first round but didn’t give herself a good birdie opportunity Friday until the par-3 12th, where she rolled in from six feet to regain a share of the lead at the time on 6 under overall.<\/p>\n
With Kuwaki in the clubhouse, Thitikul then fell a shot back on the 14th when she misjudged a birdie putt before missing from four feet on her second putt, ending with her third bogey. Thitikul limited the damage, though, on the 15th when she saved par with a long putt.<\/p>\n
\u201cI definitely … get frustrated sometimes,\u201d Thitikul said. \u201cI get really frustrated when I three-putt on 14 and then I end up on like the bunker on 15. I was like so frustrated out there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thitikul has been overlooked during the LPGA major season dominated by Ryu and Nelly Korda, who have split the four majors. Korda, who replaced Thitikul at No. 1 in April,\u00a0won the first two majors\u00a0and Ryu won the next two.<\/p>\n
Kuwaki had three straight birdies early in her round but sandwiched them with bogeys. She dropped another shot on the 15th.<\/p>\n
Korda trails by six shots after her 68 on Friday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LYTHAM ST. ANNES, England \u2014 Haeran Ryu\u00a0birdied No. 18\u00a0to complete a 2-under 69 for a one-shot lead after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":839090,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,82],"class_list":["post-839089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=839089"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839089\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/839090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=839089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=839089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=839089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}