Australian Lee in Contention for Second Major Title

Southern Pines, North Carolina, United States: Mother Nature gave the field in the 77th US Women’s Open Presented by ProMedica a bit of a breather for round two at Pine Needles Lodge & Golf Club. Stifling heat was replaced by comfortable temperatures in the 80s and an overnight shower softened the course just a touch.

Give the world’s best players more benign conditions and watch the leaderboard turn into a sea of red numbers. A total of 26 players are under par through 36 holes, which is 12 more than the combined number of players in red figures through 36 holes of the previous three US Women’s Opens at Pine Needles.

Minjee Lee, who broke through for her first Major championship victory last July at the Amundi Evian Championship, took full advantage. A member of the triumphant Australian team at the 2013 Queen Sirikit Cup, Lee backed up a first-round 67 with a five-under-par 66 to share the midway lead at nine-under 133 with 18-hole leader Mina Harigae.

Harigae, 32, a three-time winner on the developmental Epson Tour but still seeking her first LPGA Tour victory, didn’t quite match her brilliant 64 from Saturday, but a 69 left her in position to claim the biggest victory of her career.

Plenty of star power is lurking. Eleven players, including world number one Ko Jin-young, three-time Major winner Anna Nordqvist, 2017 US Women’s Open champion Park Sung-hyun, and Choi Hye-jin, the former amateur phenom she edged that year, are within five strokes of the lead.

Choi, an LPGA Tour rookie with five top 10s in 2022, posted a 64 on Friday to get within two of the lead with Nordqvist, who added a 68 to her opening-round 67.

The cut came at three-over 145 with 66 professionals and four amateurs qualifying for the weekend. Reigning US Girls’ Junior champion and 2022 NCAA Division I individual titlist Rose Zhang, number one in the women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking, world number two Ingrid Lindblad, 2022 US Women’s Amateur Four-Ball runner-up Bailey Shoemaker and Saki Baba, of Japan, were the four amateurs to make the cut.

Seven past winners missed the cut, including Yuka Saso, the second consecutive defending champion who failed to qualify for the final 36 holes.

Nonetheless, there should be plenty of drama over the final two days of the championship.

Lee certainly will draw on her Evian triumph of 2021, where she carded a final-round 64 and eventually prevailed in a play-off.

Harigae, meanwhile, is hoping for a better weekend result than she had last July when she shared the 36-hole lead in the AIG Women’s British Open at Carnoustie, only to shoot a 76 in round three that derailed her title aspirations. She has already had a breakthrough in this championship, having never broken 70 in 36 previous rounds before doing it twice in two days.

“Today was fun, but stressful,” said Harigae. “I was really happy with the way I hung in there and made some good birdies coming in.”

On Friday, Harigae birdied the two statistically hardest holes on the course – the 194-yard, par-three fifth and 429-yard, par-four 17th. When she bogeyed seventh (her 17th of the day) due to a poorly executed chip, she immediately bounced back by stuffing her approach eight within four feet to set up a birdie.

Lee, now 10 years removed from her US Girls’ Junior triumph, had four birdies on the opening nine. Two birdies against a three-putt bogey on 14 gave the Australian her 66.

“I'm not sure how the conditions are going to change and what time I’m playing [on Saturday], but I’ve been taking one shot at a time,” said Lee of her mindset. “The golf course can really catch up to you quickly, so just trying to take whatever I have in front of me as I go. Whenever I have a birdie opportunity, I try to take advantage of that.”

Five years ago, Choi was an amateur phenom that few outside Korea had heard of. Then she nearly won at Trump National Golf Club to help kick-start what has been a solid start to her professional career with 12 victories in Asia.

Her 64 on Friday included nine birdies and matched Harigae’s low round of the week. It was the seventh 64 in championship history and was one off the record held by Helen Alfredsson.