Debutante Sung Hyun Park takes halfway

 lead in US Women's Open

Written By: Amy Rogers @TheAmyRogers

Amy Rogers is a Content Producer for LPGA.com. She has covered the LPGA, PGA, Web.com and European Tours for Golf Channel. She has also worked as a Sports Anchor and Reporter covering the New York City and Orlando markets.



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SAN MARTIN – Sung Hyun Park is trying to achieve this week what In Gee Chun accomplished last year and become just the fifth player in the history of the U.S. Women’s Open conducted by the USGA to win in their first appearance.


On Friday, Park posted one of the low rounds of the day with a six-under par 66 to move to eight-under par and take the 36-hole lead at the season’s third major. 
She holds a two-stroke lead ahead of first round leader Mirim Lee and Amy Yang at six-under par.


“This is the first time in a USGA tournament. And coming to the tournament, I didn't even think about winning because this is the first time for me,” Park told the media. 
“I would like more experience with the USGA, LPGA. But I'm trying to enjoy this tournament. That's why I am just more comfortable; don't even think about the winning, I just enjoy the play. That's why it happened today.”

When Mirim Lee teed off in the afternoon she shared the lead with Park at eight under. But she went on to have rollercoaster of a day, beginning with back-to-back bogeys on her third and fourth holes to drop out of a share of the lead. 
But Lee rebounded with three birdies to close out her first nine and take the outright lead at the turn at nine-under par. Then, Lee’s round took another turn, making double-bogey at the par 4, 10^th hole to fall behind Park.
 She finished her round with a two-over par 74 to sit two-strokes back of the lead.
Click here to watch Lee's post-round interview.

Lee shares second place with Amy Yang who had an up and down day of her own. The two-time U.S. Women’s Open runner-up climbed into a share of the lead with Lee and Park early on day two before making two bogeys in her last three holes to settle for a one-under par, 71 to finish the day at six-under par. 
Yang told LPGA.com her struggle was with her driver, resulting in her hitting just seven of 14 fairways on Friday.


“Yesterday I hit it, I drove it so good, so I gave myself many opportunities out there,” Yang told the media. “But today I had some trouble hitting tee shots, hitting into rough and trying to save up and down. But I finished good. I did good, yeah.”
Click here to watch Yang's post-round interview.

Lydia Ko bounced back from an opening round 73 to match Park for the low round of the morning, carding a six-under par, 66 to move into a share of fourth with Haru Nomura at five-under par. The round is the lowest Ko has carded in this championship and only the second round in the 60’s in her five starts. 
Ko told LPGA.com the key to going low on Friday was the opportunities she was able to give herself for birdie, stringing together four-straight on her inward nine and a total of five in a six hole stretch.


“It would be one of the highest tournaments to win. Every tournament is special, but it is a major and we're -- I'm playing on the Tour that I've always dreamt of playing, and this is probably -- this is the biggest championship in the U.S.
 It would be a tournament that I would love to win,” Ko told the media. “It takes a lot of great golf, a lot of patience to win this championship. There's a lot of golf to be played. So I don't really want to get ahead of myself, but it's definitely up there, or at least once in my career.”
Click here to watch Ko's post-round interview.

Ko is a two-time major champion who won her first major title in 2015 at the Evian Championship followed by a second consecutive major victory at the 2016 ANA Inspiration. 
Nomura, however, is in the hunt for her first major victory. She is already a two-time winner in 2016, playing well in the windy conditions in Australia and San Francisco to capture her first victories on Tour. Nomura was right at home in the gusty conditions Friday afternoon at CordeValle where she carded a three-under par, 69 to move to five-under par heading into the weekend.

The  cut line is four-over par 148, which sends home several notables including defending champion In Gee Chun, who missed her first cut as a member of the LPGA Tour this week. Chun finished at five-over par to become the first defending champion since Birdie Kim in 2006 to miss the weekend.


Se Ri Pak also missed the cut, finishing at nine-over par for the Championship. Pak announced during her pre-tournament press conference that this week would mark her last competitive tournament in the United States. 
Pak became the first South Korean player to win on Tour with her victory at the 1998 U.S. Women’s Open champion and ushered in a generation of players known as “Se Ri Kids.”


HALFWAY SCOREBOARD
par 144 (2x72) Yardage: 6,784
 

1	Sung Hyun Park	70	66						136
T2	Amy Yang	67	71						138
T2	Mirim Lee	64	74						138
T4	Lydia Ko	73	66						139
T4	Haru Nomura	70	69						139
T6	Eun-Hee Ji	69	71						140
T6	Danielle Kang	71	69						140
T6	Jessica Korda	70	70						140
T6	Kelly Tan	68	72						140
T10	Maude-Aimee Leblanc	72	69						141
T10	Sydnee Michaels	69	72						141
T10	Angela Stanford	71	70						141
T10	Mo Martin	71	70						141
T10	Jodi Ewart Shadoff	70	71						141
T15	Alena Sharp	70	72						142
T15	Gerina Piller	70	72						142
T15	Anna Nordqvist	68	74						142
T15	Minjee Lee	67	75						142
T15	Cristie Kerr	67	75						142
T20	Kris Tamulis	71	72						143
T20	Sei Young Kim	75	68						143
T20	Brittany Lang	68	75						143
T20	Pernilla Lindberg	70	73						143
T20	Hye Jin Choi	72	71						143
T20	Gaby Lopez	71	72						143
T26	Chella Choi	75	69						144
T26	Ryann O'Toole	71	73						144
T26	Ha Na Jang	73	71						144
T29	Ayaka Watanabe	74	71						145
T29	Lee Lopez	73	72						145
T29	Catriona Matthew	73	72						145
T29	Kim Kaufman	75	70						145
T29	Hee Young Park	70	75						145
T29	Gwladys Nocera	72	73						145
T29	Christina Kim	70	75						145
T29	Ariya Jutanugarn	70	75						145
T29	Stacy Lewis	71	74						145
T38	Moriya Jutanugarn	69	77						146
T38	Mi Hyang Lee	72	74						146
T38	Suzann Pettersen	72	74						146
T38	Hyo Joo Kim	73	73						146
T38	Xi Yu Lin	73	73						146
T38	Kelly Shon	73	73						146
T38	Sakura Yokomine	71	75						146
T38	Karrie Webb	73	73						146
T38	Caroline Masson	73	73						146
T38	Christine Song	74	72						146
T48	Madelene Sagstrom	78	69						147
T48	Nicole Broch Larsen	74	73						147
T48	Yani Tseng	72	75						147
T48	Brittany Lincicome	75	72						147
T48	Brooke Mackenzie Henderson	76	71						147
T48	Lexi Thompson	74	73						147
T48	Q Baek	74	73						147
T48	Sue Kim	76	71						147
T48	Albane Valenzuela	72	75						147
T48	So Yeon Ryu	71	76						147
T48	Sun Ju Ahn	74	73						147
T48	Hannah O'Sullivan	72	75						147
T60	Beatriz Recari	78	70						148
T60	Jennifer Song	75	73						148
T60	Shanshan Feng	74	74						148
T60	Paula Creamer	74	74						148
T60	Nelly Korda	72	76						148
T60	Sophia Popov	71	77						148
T60	Amy Anderson	71	77						148
T60	Teresa Lu	74	74						148
T60	Morgan Pressel	73	75						148
T60	Pornanong Phatlum	70	78						148
T60	Jenny Shin	71	77						148
T60	Lizette Salas	70	78						148
T60	Erina Hara	71	77						148
T73	Robynn Ree	75	74	MC	MC	-	-	-	149
T73	Leona Maguire (am)	74	75	MC	MC	-	-	-	149
T73	In-Kyung Kim	78	71	MC	MC	-	-	-	149
T73	Karine Icher	77	72	MC	MC	-	-	-	149
T73	Michelle Wie	75	74	MC	MC	-	-	-	149
T73	Charley Hull	74	75	MC	MC	-	-	-	149
T73	Pei-Yun Chien	72	77	MC	MC	-	-	-	149
T73	Beth Allen	74	75	MC	MC	-	-	-	149
T73	Austin Ernst	75	74	MC	MC	-	-	-	149
T73	Mika Miyazato	71	78	MC	MC	-	-	-	149
T83	Pamela Pretswell	75	75	MC	MC	-	-	-	150
T83	Sandra Changkija	75	75	MC	MC	-	-	-	150
T83	Mika Liu	75	75	MC	MC	-	-	-	150
T83	Mi Jung Hur	74	76	MC	MC	-	-	-	150
T83	Bo-Mee Lee	76	74	MC	MC	-	-	-	150
T83	Azahara Munoz	73	77	MC	MC	-	-	-	150
T83	In Gee Chun	73	77	MC	MC	-	-	-	150
T83	Ashleigh Simon	74	76	MC	MC	-	-	-	150
T83	Maria McBride	73	77	MC	MC	-	-	-	150
T92	Emi Sato	74	77	MC	MC	-	-	-	151
T92	Jackie Stoelting	76	75	MC	MC	-	-	-	151
T92	Hannah Wood	73	78	MC	MC	-	-	-	151
T92	Sandra Gal	77	74	MC	MC	-	-	-	151
T92	Marina Alex	79	72	MC	MC	-	-	-	151
T92	Ayaka Matsumori	78	73	MC	MC	-	-	-	151
T92	Camilla Lennarth	76	75	MC	MC	-	-	-	151
T92	Sun Young Yoo	77	74	MC	MC	-	-	-	151
T92	Julia Engstrom	72	79	MC	MC	-	-	-	151
T92	Na Yeon Choi	74	77	MC	MC	-	-	-	151
T92	Candie Kung	75	76	MC	MC	-	-	-	151
T92	Jing Yan	71	80	MC	MC	-	-	-	151
T92	Wei-Ling Hsu	74	77	MC	MC	-	-	-	151
T92	Jaye Marie Green	76	75	MC	MC	-	-	-	151
T106	Lee-Anne Pace	78	74	MC	MC	-	-	-	152
T106	Carlota Ciganda	77	75	MC	MC	-	-	-	152
T106	Melissa Reid	78	74	MC	MC	-	-	-	152
T106	Su-Hyun Oh	75	77	MC	MC	-	-	-	152
T106	Lauren Stephenson	77	75	MC	MC	-	-	-	152
T106	Cydney Clanton	75	77	MC	MC	-	-	-	152
T106	Shiho Oyama	76	76	MC	MC	-	-	-	152
T113	Megan Khang	79	74	MC	MC	-	-	-	153
T113	Mariajo Uribe	76	77	MC	MC	-	-	-	153
T113	Min Lee	75	78	MC	MC	-	-	-	153
T113	Se Ri Pak	73	80	MC	MC	-	-	-	153
T113	Alison Lee	74	79	MC	MC	-	-	-	153
T113	Jane Park	72	81	MC	MC	-	-	-	153
T119	Allisen S Corpuz	78	76	MC	MC	-	-	-	154
T119	Olivia Cowan	81	73	MC	MC	-	-	-	154
T119	Taylor Kim	75	79	MC	MC	-	-	-	154
T119	Ilhee Lee	72	82	MC	MC	-	-	-	154
T119	Ssu-Chia Cheng	79	75	MC	MC	-	-	-	154
T119	Kotone Hori	75	79	MC	MC	-	-	-	154
T119	Caroline Inglis	72	82	MC	MC	-	-	-	154
T119	Paula Hurtado	76	78	MC	MC	-	-	-	154
T119	Rinko Mitsunaga	76	78	MC	MC	-	-	-	154
T119	Spencer Heller	74	80	MC	MC	-	-	-	154
T119	Haeran Ryu	74	80	MC	MC	-	-	-	154
T130	Marissa Chow	80	75	MC	MC	-	-	-	155
T130	Jennifer Kupcho	77	78	MC	MC	-	-	-	155
T130	Angel Yin	76	79	MC	MC	-	-	-	155
T130	Alexandra Kaui	76	79	MC	MC	-	-	-	155
T130	Liv Cheng	81	74	MC	MC	-	-	-	155
T135	Nannette Hill	78	78	MC	MC	-	-	-	156
T135	Jade Schaeffer	78	78	MC	MC	-	-	-	156
T137	Erica Shepherd	82	75	MC	MC	-	-	-	157
T137	Naomi Eun Young Ko	74	83	MC	MC	-	-	-	157
T137	Yoon-Ji Cho	79	78	MC	MC	-	-	-	157
T140	Julie Yang	80	78	MC	MC	-	-	-	158
T140	Yan Liu	74	84	MC	MC	-	-	-	158
T140	Valentine Derrey	78	80	MC	MC	-	-	-	158
T140	Bailey Tardy	77	81	MC	MC	-	-	-	158
T144	Yu-Sang Hou	83	76	MC	MC	-	-	-	159
T144	Julieta Granada	78	81	MC	MC	-	-	-	159
T146	Miriam Nagl	84	76	MC	MC	-	-	-	160
T146	Sierra Brooks	80	80	MC	MC	-	-	-	160
T146	Chih-Min Chen	84	76	MC	MC	-	-	-	160
149	Jung-Min Lee	79	83	MC	MC	-	-	-	162
T150	Chika Sawada	86	77	MC	MC	-	-	-	163
T150	Yunjie Zhang	81	82	MC	MC	-	-	-	163
T150	Hannah Burke	79	84	MC	MC	-	-	-	163
T153	Sandra Angulo Minarro	83	81	MC	MC	-	-	-	164
T153	Kasey Petty	81	83	MC	MC	-	-	-	164
T155	Anna Hack	80	85	MC	MC	-	-	-	165
T155	Karah Sanford	85	80	MC	MC	-	-	-	165