PORTLAND, Ore. \u2014 Akie Iwai of Japan eagled the fifth hole and birdied the other three par 5s at Columbia Edgewater, shooting an 8-under 64 on Saturday to take a two-stroke lead in The Standard Portland Classic.<\/p>\n
Iwai is trying to join twin sister Chisato as an LPGA Tour winner this year after second-place finishes in Thailand in February and Los Angeles in April.<\/p>\n
She put on a ball-striking exhibition Saturday in mostly calm conditions on the tree-lined course, hitting a 5-wood 200 yards to 3 feet to set up the eagle and twice hitting to a foot for birdie – the last on the par-4 18th to get to 18-under 198.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy style, my golf style, is aggressive,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s why no change this week. Also, aim to the pin – boom! boom! Every shot, every hole. That\u2019s it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Grace Kim of Australia was second after a 67. She holed a 156-yard, 7-iron shot for eagle from the left rough on the par-4 17th.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was trying to see if I could get a drop,\u201d Kim said. \u201cI wasn\u2019t entirely over the sprinkler-head boxes so you knew I just had to hit it. Leaked right again. I was like, `Oh, please get through the rough.\u2019 Somehow went in the hole.\u201d<\/p>\n
Linn Grant was 14 under after a 65. The Swede won the 2023 Dana Open for her lone LPGA Tour title.<\/p>\n
\u201cTried to go out and just be, I wouldn\u2019t say happy, but just accepting of whatever today would bring,\u201d Grant said. \u201cI think I played very mature and just had a lot of fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gurleen Kaur had a 70 to get to 13 under, and Aditi Ashok (65) was another stroke back with Gina Kim (67).<\/p>\n
Chisato Iwai \u2014 the winner in Mexico at Mayakoba in May \u2014 was in the group at 11 under after a 66. She also eagled the fifth hole.<\/p>\n
Haeran Ryu, at No. 9 in the world one of only two top-10 players in the field, also was 11 under. She had a hole-in-one on the 177-yard 16th in a 67.<\/p>\n
Akie Iwai dropped a stroke on the par-3 second, then played a five-hole stretch in 5 under. She hit her second shot to 3 feet to set up the eagle, then hit to a foot on the par-4 sixth.<\/p>\n
On the back nine, she birdied three of the first four holes, two of them par 5s, then hit a 152-yard shot to a foot on 18.<\/p>\n
She\u2019s sticking with the aggressive approach Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo change. No change. Same as usual,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Two-time champion Brooke Henderson, a stroke back after an opening 65, followed a second-round 73 with a 68 to get to 10 under. The Canadian star is winless since January 2023.<\/p>\n
Second-round leader Jeongeun Lee5 also was 10 under. She shot 74.<\/p>\n
Amateur Kiara Romero was 8 under after a 72. The University of Oregon player won the 2023 U.S. Girls\u2019 Junior and 2025 Big Ten title.<\/p>\n
The tournament is the longest continuous event on the LPGA Tour except for the majors, dating to 1972.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PORTLAND, Ore. \u2014 Akie Iwai of Japan eagled the fifth hole and birdied the other three par 5s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":90411,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[427,99],"class_list":["post-90410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90410\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}