Ko back in contention

Park was 8-under after the second round and led Yang and Mirim Lee by two shots, Ko and Haru Nomura by three.

The sophomore-to-be on the Kentucky women’s golf team finished at 21-over par after a hard second round at CordeValle in San Martin, Calif. Hack needed to make up ground Friday after an opening-round 8-over par that included eight straight pars. But the 19-year-old, two-time major victor also had trouble at No. 9 with her first bogey, which dropped her back to her original starting position at 5-under.

Rolling in a 9-foot birdie putt at the last, Ko moved to 7 under overall, one shot better than Eun Hee Ji (70) and Sung Hyun Park (74).

“My birdie on 3 kind of turned the round around and making the string of birdies definitely helped, ” she said.

She said: “Winning the Evian Championship gave me a lot of confidence to say, “Hey, I can play well at these Majors”.

American Brittany Lang (68) and Amy Yang (73) are tied for fourth at five under, while Angela Stanford (71) is a shot further back. Lang tied for second as an amateur in her first U.S. Open back in 2005 but has only gotten in the top five once since then back in 2010.

And we haven’t even mentioned Ko, who was born in South Korea but moved with her parents to New Zealand at a young age.

“No, I think the best thing is to not get out of your routines”.

Among the players who missed the cut at 4 over were last year’s victor In Gee Chun, 2014 U.S. Open champion Michelle Wie and 1998 victor Se Ri Pak.

“I didn’t start off very well, missing the fairway on one”, Ko, who began her round with a bogey and ended it with a four-foot putt for birdie at the last, told reporters. Attempting to speed up a bit, Ko bogeyed the 12th and 14th and her Open hopes were pretty much fried. “I don’t care how good you strike the ball, if you don’t make a putt you can’t win”. “I want my mom’s cooking, and that’s it”.

San Martin, CA, USA; Lydia Ko reacts on the eighteenth green during the third round of the women’s 2016 U.S. Open golf tournament at CordeValle Golf Club. Last month’s KPMG Women’s PGA Championship marked the first time she’d held the lead going into Sunday at a major.

“It changes a lot”, she said.

“It just shows how much this championship means to me and means to the women’s game, and how important it is for any player and what a big honor it is to be holding the trophy at the end of Sunday”. Ko is one of the shorter hitters on the LPGA, ranking 117th on the tour. I feel like if I’m not nervous it’s because – I think nerves are good because it means you’re excited.

Perhaps sitting in the best spot is Ji, an experienced player who claimed the title in 2009, one of seven South Koreans who’ve won the past 11 Opens. And when she captured the ANA, she became the youngest with multiple majors since Young Tom Morris – in 1869. “But it takes a lot of great golf, a lot of patience to win this championship, and there’s a lot of golf to be played”.

“There’s no doubt I have to shoot at least 4 to 6 under, I’d say tomorrow to have a chance”, Kerr said.

“I thought there were so many positives, from that final round at Sahalee”, Ko said. “I think I tried to stay patient and calm out there today”.

Lang won the playoff by three shots in controversial fashion after Nordqvist received a two shot penalty for grounding her club in a bunker on the 18th.