Henderson, Ryu and Sung Hung Park tied for lead at KPMG
There they are, three of the very best young players in women's golf strung together at the top of the leaderboard midway through the 64th KPMG Women's PGA Championship at Kemper Lakes. What more could you want going into moving day at the most significant tournament of Chicago's 2018 golf season?
An American contender would have been nice and there was one until the final minutes of Friday's long day of play. And, it wasn't even a usual suspect like Lexi Thompson or Stacey Lewis or defending champion Danielle Kang.
Jaye Marie Green was tied for the lead until she made a triple bogey at the par-3 17th. That left center stage to Canadian Brooke Henderson and a pair of stellar Koreans. While there's certain to be some shuffling in the standings over the weekend, the trio of Henderson, So Yeon Ryu and Sung Hyun Park are formidable targets for the others to be chasing. Especially Henderson.
The 21-year old Henderson, with her sister Brittany carrying her bag, has had extraordinary success in this, the second-oldest championship in women's golf. She finished fifth after getting into the field on a sponsor's exemption in 2015.
The next year, at Sahalee in Washington, she won the coveted title and became the second-youngest player to win a major. Last year at Olympia Fields she was just a stroke back of champion Danielle Kang in a duel that went down to the final hole.
"I just love the energy and the atmosphere (in this tournament), and knowing that I've played well in the past gives me that little bit of extra boost," said Henderson after posting a 71 in warmer, breezier conditions than the field faced in Thursday's opening round.
Henderson, Ryu (69 on Friday) and Park (72) are all at 6-under-par 138 for the first 36 holes. Ryu and Park are part of the super strong Korean contingent in the field, with Ryu being the world No. 1 as recently as last year's tournament and Park having won the U.S. Women's Open as an LPGA rookie in 2017.
Ryu, who celebrated her 28th birthday on Friday, has gotten better with age, or, at the very least, her long game has.
"I started to get a little longer in 2016, and then in 2017 I was definitely longer," said Ryu. "This year I'm a club longer with the irons, so that's definitely helped me to play more aggressive. And playing more aggressive made me have a lot of birdie opportunities, so these days it's really a matter of putting."
Carlota Ciganda of Spain is within one shot of the three leaders and the group at two back includes New Zealand's Lydia Ko, winner of two major titles before her 21st birthday, and Thailand's Moriya Jutanugarn, sister of second-ranked Ariya Jutanugarn, the reigning U.S. Women's Open champion. Ariya will start the weekend seven strokes behind the leaders.
Kang, who suffered from stomach problems when she began her title defense on Thursday, got within 2 shots of the lead after stringing 3 straight birdies on her second nine. Kang started her round at No. 10, and the birdie run came on Nos. 2, 3 and 4. She dropped back with bogeys at Nos. 7 and 9, however, and starts the weekend four shots behind the leaders in a tie for 12th place.
Friday's round lasted over 12 hours before the cut to play on the weekend was determined to be at 2-over-par 146. There was one very notable player to miss it. Inbee Park, the No. 1-ranked player in the Rolex World Rankings and a three-time winner of the tournament, came up 2 strokes short after posting a 76 on Friday.
The shot of the day didn't match the two holes-in-one of Thursday, but Angel Lin also made an eagle off a chip-in on the par-5 seventh. She hit her third shot with her heels on the edge of the water and the hole-out paid big dividends. Lin wound up posting a 69 and finished the day in a tie for 12th.
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