The long Friday rounds at Royal Porthcawl are slowly finishing up, here are some of the biggest storylines for the day so far:
- This is a true two-horse race at this point. As long as either Miyu Yamashita or Rio Takeda play around even par golf, it will be tough to catch them. The afternoon wave was significantly more difficult, and nobody could truly make a move. Yamashita is seven strokes clear of third place.
- Andrea Lee continued to play solid golf. Don’t think anybody has had more of an off balance hype to results ratio this season. While she had some mid-round struggles with bogeys on 11, 14 and 16, but recovered nicely to shoot an even par round and be -2 for the tournament.
- Nelly Korda had an okay day, shooting even par in the easier conditions, but she is still having trouble getting much going. Each step forward is followed by a step back as she did make four birdies but also matched that number with four bogeys. Because of the difficult draw for afternoon players, she’s relatively high on the leaderboard, but nine strokes back.
- Lindy Duncan has been a fantastic story in the majors this year. The 34-year-old had never finished better than 15 in any major in her career previously, but finished runner-up at Chevron and is in third place today after two -2 rounds.
- Casandra Alexander is in contention for the second consecutive major on the weekend. The South African who plays her golf on the Ladies European Tour had only one other competitive major start, at last year’s Open Championship. She is -3 and in the top 10.
- Jeeno Thitikul and Lottie Woad, two of the biggest stories coming into the week, had great rounds derailed by tough back-nine triple bogeys. Thitikul was -2 for the day and the only player in the afternoon wave finding real success. She was at -4 heading into 15 before she got too aggressive out of a deep pot bunker, costing her likely at least three shots. She made a six on the par three. Woad was -5 for the day and the tournament when she hit one off target on the difficult 16th hole. She didn’t advance the ball at all and needed a drop. She also triple bogeyed, moving her well down the leaderboard. Woad finished at -2 for the week while Thitikul finished -1.
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