Park In-bi (33) continued her advance toward 21 wins in her career, holding the lead for the second day in the LPGA Tour Tournament, where she participated for the first time this year.
On the 27th (Korean time) in the second round of the KIA Classic ($1.8 million in prize money) held at Aviara Golf Club (par 72) in Carlsbad, California, USA, Park In-bi grabbed four birdies and hit one 3 under par 69.
Park In-bi, who took the lead alone with a 6-under par without first round, reduced the number of at-bats and recorded 135 strokes in the middle of the 9-under par, and maintained the sole lead with 2nd place Zofia Popov (German, 8-under par 136).
Park In-bi, who skipped the three previous tournaments this year and started the season with this tournament, took a turn at the forefront and had a chance to win the championship in more than a year since the Australian Women’s Open in February last year.
If he wins this tournament, Inbi Park will win 21 victories on the LPGA Tour.
Park In-bi, who started from hole 10 that day, caught a birdie in hole 12 (par 4), reducing one stroke in the first half, and holes 1 (par 4), 3 (par 3), and 5 (par 5) in the second half. He raised his momentum as a stepping stone buddy.
However, after that, he couldn’t reduce the number of strokes further and only scored on the 7th hole (par 4).
Park Inbi missed the fairway three times as in the previous day, and the green hit rate dropped slightly to 72.2%. There were 28 putts, one more than the first round.
Park Inbi said, “The weather was much better than yesterday. “It didn’t rain and the wind was even less,” he said. “The game was good overall, but putt wasn’t the same as yesterday.”
“I couldn’t put the buddy putt even with the shot really close, but I went in at 15-20 feet (about 4.5m-6m). I think I missed about 5-6 feet in the last three holes,” he said. “It’s a green that needs practice.”
Kim Hyo-joo (26), who took part in the LPGA Tour Tournament after 1 year and 4 months, took 2nd place in the 1st round, and on this day, he traded 3 birdies and 3 bogies and went down to 4th place (5 under par 139) without reducing the number of strokes. With Park In-bi, it took place by four strokes.
Ko Jin-young (26), the world’s No. 1 player, reduced one stroke and climbed to 10th place (2 under par 142) with Mi-jeong Heo (32).
Last year’s LPGA Tour Player of the Year, Kim Se-young (28), ranked second in the world rankings, stayed in 77th place (4 over par, 148 strokes) with Lee Jung-eun (25) and Park Sung-hyun (28), and was eliminated from the cut.
Kang Hye-ji (31) made a hole-in-one on the 11th hole (par 3, 154 yards), but lost two shots that day and was tied for 96th place (6 over par 150 shots), so she could not pass the cut.
Kim A-lim (26), who made her official debut through this tournament, won a surprise victory at the US Women’s Open last year and obtained LPGA tour membership.
Michelle Wie West (32), a Korean-American who came before returning after 1 year and 9 months, failed to advance to the 3rd round with 155 strokes over 11 in the middle and tied for 136.
After hitting a 9-over par in the first round, he had to be satisfied that his performance improved by losing two strokes this day.
We West, who announced a suspension of activities for the time being after being eliminated from the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship in June 2019, married Johnny West, an officer of the Golden State Warriors Secretariat in the U.S. Professional Basketball (NBA) in August of that year, and had a daughter in June of last year.
Jeonin-in, 27, reduced one stroke in the second round to record 139 strokes in the middle of the 5th under par, which is the fourth place, but was disqualified by submitting the score card without signing. Having entered the top 10 in all three competitions this year, he missed the opportunity to continue the uptrend.