Tseng has four-shot lead at Royal Birkdale
July 30, 2010
SOUTHPORT, England (AP)—Yani Tseng certainly is consistent.
The 21-year-old from Taiwan shot her second consecutive 4-under 68 onFriday, taking a four-shot lead after the second round of the Women’s BritishOpen. The American duo of Brittany Lincicome and Christie Kerr joined Amy Youngof South Korea in the chase entering the weekend.
“There was no wind this morning and it was very calm, so it was nice outthere,” said Tseng, who is trying to win her third major championship. “Thecourse played totally different than what we played the last three days, so itwas really nice.”
Rain washed over Royal Birkdale in the afternoon, making things difficultfor the late starters—including defending champion Catriona Matthew ofScotland, who missed the cut by seven strokes after making a 10 at the par-four13th hole.
Her tee shot landed in a bush, and she eventually found the deep rough nearthe green. After three tries to hack her way out of it, Matthew ended up takinga penalty drop, chipping onto the green and two-putting for her 10—only tobirdie the par-3 next hole.
“After the 10 I just wanted to get in,” said Matthew, whose 10-2 sequenceon her scorecard was part of a 9-over 81. She missed the cut at 12 over.
Kerr certainly didn’t have any problems, posting the low round for thetournament with a 5-under 67. She made a pair of 10-footers for birdie on thefirst two holes, dropped a stroke at the eighth, then picked up four morebirdies to join Lincicome and Young at 4 under.
“I played really well today,” Kerr said. “I was determined to be morerelaxed out there. I’ve been putting a lot of pressure on myself since gettingthe No. 1 ranking and I hadn’t really realized that’s what was going on. So Ijust went out and did my thing today.”
Lincicome had a birdie at the second, then dropped four strokes in athree-hole stretch beginning at the 11th. She also took advantage of an easyfinish at Royal Birkdale, though, with a birdie at No. 15, an eagle two holeslater and another birdie at 18 for her 1-under 71.
Veteran Julie Inkster also shot herself into contention with a 2-under 70that left her five shots off the lead, doing so in the worst of the weather.Suzann Pettersen of Norway shot a 68 and Sun Young Yoo of South Korea had aneven-par 72 to join Inkster in a tie for fifth.
“It was rainy and tedious but I was very happy with the way I played,”said the 50-year-old Inkster, who bogeyed the third hole but recovered with abirdie at the fourth. She picked up two more birdies at the 15th and 17th tofinish her round with some momentum.
“There’s a lot of good names up there but we’re all going to be playing atthe same time tomorrow,” Inkster said, “so that’s going to help.”
Michelle Wie failed to take advantage of an early start time, hitting herfirst tee shot out of bounds. She ended up shooting a 4-over 76 that left her 10strokes off the lead.
Fellow American Christina Kim went the other direction with a 4-under 68that moved her into a tie at 2 under. She’s joined by Frenchwoman Anne-LiseCaudal (73), Japan’s Momoko Ueda (70), first-round leader Katherine Hull (74),and South Koreans In-Kyung Kim (72), Hee Kyung Seo (69), M.J. Hur (68) and JiyaiShin (71).
“There was no wind when we started, so I said to myself that I’ve got totake advantage of the conditions,” said Kerr, who won the LPGA Championship by12 shots earlier this season.
“The last time I was here at Birkdale (in 2005), I got the wrong end of thesplit,” Kerr said. “I had the worst of the weather in both the first andsecond rounds, but this time it has been different, so I knew I had a chance todo well.”
Kerr and the rest of the field will still have to chase down Tseng, who hasalready won the LPGA Championship and Kraft Nabisco Championship in her briefprofessional career.
The precocious young player made five birdies on Friday and dropped her onlyshot on the 373-yard par-4 third, when she drove into the bunker on the leftside of the fairway and failed to reach the green in regulation for the firsttime in 21 holes.
“I played another solid round and made a lot of putts,” said Tseng, whohad three birdies over the final five holes. “I have never led a major from thestart before, but I feel confident and believe I can continue to play well.”
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