STACY LEWIS GOES TWO CLEAR IN HSBC WOMEN'S CHAMPIONS TOURNAMENT

American Stacy Lewis has taken over the second-round lead in the HSBC Women's Champions Tournament at Sentosa Golf Club, Singapore.
The former US Curtis Cup player - won five out of five in the 2008 match over the Old Course, St Andrews - shot a 66 for 11-under-par 133. She leads by two shots from a group of six players, including the first-round leader, Spain's former British women's open amateur champion Azahara Munoz who had a 70 for 135.
Catriona Matthew had a 69 for 139 and is joint 10th.
Jodi Ewart Shadoff is T13 after a 71.

LEADERBOARD AFTER 36 HOLES
Par 144 (2x72)
133 Stacy Lewis (US) 67 66
135 Na Yeo Choi (S Korea) 69 66, Ariya Jutanugarn (Thailand) 69 66, Chella Choi (S Korea) 68 67, Paula Creamer (US) 68 67, Sun Young Yoo (S Korea) 67 68, Azahara Munoz (Spain) 65 70.

SELECTED SCORES
139 Catriona Matthew (Scotland) 70 69 (T10)
140 Jodi Ewart Shadoff (England) 69 71 (T13).

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 PUTTING GRIP TIP PUTS STACY
 IN THE GROOVE
 

Following a 67 and a 66, Stacy Lewis is in precisely the same place as she was a week ago at the Honda Thailand LPGA. She is in the half-way lead, this time by two shots from  Ariya Jutanugarn, Na Yeon Choi, Paula Creamer, Chella Choi, Sun Young Yoo and Azahara Munoz, the first-round leader.

 

Last week, Lewis’s putter went cold over the weekend as she finished in a four-way share of third place. Since then, though, she has spoken with her coach in the States and he has given her a very good idea of where she went wrong.

In her anxiety to carry on from where she left off last year, when she won four times, she was damagingly tense. “I was gripping my putter just too tightly,” said the player.“Any time you come into a new season, there’s unknowns of how your game is going to come out…..You just never know how your body is going to react even though you’ve been there before.”

 

Her coach advised gripping the putter more in the palm of her hands by way of softening her hold on the club.

 

This winner of the 2011 Kraft Nabisco is also making the effort to relax between shots. At the fifth and sixth, for instance, her caddie regaled her with details of passing ships and Singapore’s shipping history.  “I’m definitely better when I switch on and off rather than stay at full focus all the time,” she noted.

 

Currently lying fourth in the world, Lewis is chasing Yani Tseng’s top spot and has no fears that she might be the same as Tseng in sometimes finding that position less than comfortable. 

“I know No. 1 is a hard place to be,” she said, “but I feel I’m the same person at No 4 as I was when I was a hundred and something in the world. Even now, there’s lots of demands, lots of questions and everybody wants to talk to you.

 

“Right now, I don’t think that No. 1, if I get there, is going to be any different.”

 

Among the chasing pack, Lewis could well be eyeing Creamer and Jutanugarn rather more warily than the rest. Creamer because she is injured and because, as her caddie has said, she is not doing as she often does in does in burdening herself with expectation. Her stiff shoulder was “bugging” her at the start of the round but it loosened up during the course of the day.

 

As for Jutanugarn, she is desperate to have another chance at tying up a tournament after what happened last week when she was two ahead with one to play but closed with a disaster of an eight.

 

Choi, who was in the same group as Jutanugarn, was understandably impressed with the youngster. “She’s a good putter, she hits it far and straight and it seems like she’s a positive person, too. I definitely think she’s going to be a really good player, though she is a really good player already.”

 

Choi had watched Jutanugarn’s unravelling at the 18th last Sunday and reckoned that she was similar to herself in being able to take a bit of adversity on the chin.

 

Moriya Jutanugarn was at one point closing in on her younger sister but, after dipping from plus one at the start of the day to four under after 11, she finished with an anti-climactic 68.

It saw her tumbling from a share of 13th place half-way through the round to joint 21st.