Celine Borge of Norway and Polly Mack of Germany surged to the top of the leaderboard at the halfway point of the Dow Championship as they collaborated for a 10-under-par 60 score during the second round of the Dow Championship on Friday at Midland Country Club.
Cavan’s Leona Maguire, playing alongside American Lindy Duncan, and Kildare’s Lauren Walsh with partner Celine Herbin from France, made the cut on three under.
Both teams are tied for 25th.
Borge and Mack began the day a stroke back after a two-under opening round in in Michigan.
They took major advantage of the four-ball format – considered the easier of the two for the team event – for the second round, combining for a bogey-free showing to sit at 12-under 128 through two rounds.
Japanese pair Ayaka Furue and Yuna Nishimura (61) are a stroke back at 11 under while world number one Nelly Korda and her German teammate Olivia Cowan (60) are next at 10 under.
The LPGA’s lone team event features 72 two-woman teams.
They played foursomes (alternate shot) on Thursday and four-ball (best ball) on Friday.
The 34 teams that made the 36-hole cut play foursomes on Saturday and four-ball on Sunday.
Furue and Nishimura delivered six of their nine birdies in succession as they wrapped around the back nine to the front.
It was a clean day for both, with the pair only scoring two bogeys in the entire round – neither of which counted as the team’s score on the hole.
Korda and Cowan were even through round one before tying for the best round of the day on Friday, pairing 11 birdies with a lone bogey they had to score on the par-4 16th. They were each bogey-free in the second half of their round, a six-under front nine.
The pairs of Gina Kim and Yana Wilson (63), Japanese sisters Chizzy Iwai and Aki Iwai (63), Sweden’s Linn Grant and Maja Stark (63) and South Korea’s Hye-Jin Choi and Hyo Joo Kim (62) are tied for fourth at nine under.
Hall of Famer Juli Inkster, 66, became the oldest player to make an LPGA cut when she combined with 27-year-old Angel Yin for a 68 on Friday that elevated the duo to three under for the tournament.