Lydia Ko leads in final round

“I haven’t had a good round like this in a while”.

But she followed Thursday’s first-round 69 with a 66 on Friday, and she’ll go into the weekend tied for third place in the Marathon Classic at Highland Meadows Golf Club.

It is her 14th career LPGA title and fourth of the year. “Every day I’m happy”.

4, 7, 9 and 10 before regrouping with three birdies in a four-hole stretch from the 14th.

Top-ranked Lydia Ko birdied her final two holes to join in the group at 68.

Ko missed a 5-foot birdie putt on the third extra hole, sending the trio back to the 18th tee for the final time. “It’s pretty insane for me because it took a long time”. In my yardage book I kept writing four, five, six seven.

Lydia Ko’s clutch gene is as strong as ever heading into the next major championship of the year. The 19-year-old New Zealander has 14 LPGA Tour titles.

She and Kim, who opened the season with a victory in the Bahamas, were one stroke in front of South Korea’s Jang Ha-Na and American Alison Lee. 13, 15, 16 and 17.

“Feels like Im playing golf again, ” Lee said. I feel really confident going into tomorrow. Its definitely been a while since Ive felt like this, but it was worth the wait.”. Stacy Lewis and Ariya Jutanugarn are tied for fourth (202) and begin at 1:40 p.m.

“I started off well with a birdie on my first hole, and then made a clumsy bogey on the next hole”.

“It was hard to just see so many putts just slip by”, Ko said. “It was probably one of the most solid rounds of the year, just ball-striking-wise”. “All my approach shots, I was hitting it well”. Born in the area, the Texan is winless in 56 starts since taking the North Texas LPGA Shootout in June 2014 for her 11th tour victory. She has 11 runner-up finishes during the drought and 24 overall.

“At the end of the day, Ive just got to focus on my game, ” Ko said. But I feel like, you know, it’s coming around and I’m doing my best to keep my head up.

A hole-in-one at the par-three 17th keyed Jhonattan Vegas’s scintillating round of 60 in the US PGA Tour Barbasol Championship in Auburn, Alabama, on Friday.

“I played pretty good”, Jutanugarn said.

Brittany Lang, victor of the US Women’s Open last week, carded a 69 that put her in a group sharing 16th place on 139. Nordqvist was 2 under after a 69.

The Venezuelan Olympic qualifier pumped his fist after finishing with a 12-foot birdie putt on the par-4 ninth on Grand National’s Lake Course. The 35-year-old Australian, also limited to past champion status, won the last of his three titles in 2011 at Riviera.

ROCKET PRIDE: Another player who gained a lot of local support was recent University of Toledo graduate Sathika Ruenreong, who gained entry to the field with a sponsor’s exemption.

Former Auburn player Blayne Barber was a stroke back at 66 along with Martin Laird, Ben Crane, Shawn Stefani, Matt Bettencourt, Michael Kim and Lucas Lee. Saunders, Arnold Palmer’s grandson, shot a 65.

“It’s really nice for me to have a chance in a play-off”, she said.

Swafford’s 63 included an eagle and eight birdies to balance a double-bogey.