SAMMAMISH – Fortunately for Sarah Schmelzel, her swing coach was right.
After four consecutive top-10 finishes on the LPGA Tour in late February and March, including a career-best second-place finish, things turned ugly.
He missed five cuts in six events, with a finish of 66th. Chris Mayson assured Schmelzel that he would play well.
On Friday, the 30-year-old from Phoenix was great.
She took advantage of the morning’s easier scoring conditions to shoot a tournament-best 5-under 67 and share the lead with Amy Yang in the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Sahalee Country Club.
Yang, despite being bothered by back pain, completed a round of 68 around 7:30 p.m., about six hours after Schmelzel finished.
Schmelzel and Yang are at 6-under 138 through two rounds, two shots ahead of first-round leader Lexi Thompson, Hinako Shibuno and Jin Young Ko, who played in the morning wave.
Schmelzel said she took comfort in Mayson’s faith in her during difficult times.
“He said…relax and this is going to happen, and believe it,” Schmelzel said. “So I’ve been thinking about that for the last few weeks. “I saw some really positive things last week and I took advantage of them this week.”
Indeed.
Schmelzel finished 30th last week at the Meijer LPGA Classic and is now primed to finish much better than that here after recording six birdies and one bogey on Friday.
“Staying aggressive off the tees is our game plan this week,” Schmelzel said. “I handled it really well, so luckily I was able to take advantage of having some shorter irons today.”
He finished his day with two birdies in a row, staying strong after taking a look at the leaderboard before the 18th hole and seeing his name at the top.
Schmelzel had an excellent drive on the final hole, then hit a three-wood that left her about 40 yards from the flag. She got within a foot for a stress-free birdie.
“It was nice to be able to finish so well, knowing I was ahead in a major,” he said.
It was a much more difficult time on the course for those playing in the afternoon as the greens became much firmer.
But Yang managed to make four birdies and no bogeys despite the tough conditions.
“I woke up and started feeling pain in my lower back, but that actually gave me more focus, to make sure I was even more focused on every shot,” said Yang, who has five LPGA Tour wins.
Others fared much worse in the afternoon, including world number one Nelly Korda. She was one shot behind after the first round, but she bogeyed her first four holes on Friday and was 6 up through nine holes.
From there it only got worse. A double bogey after hitting an out-of-bounds approach shot on the 15th hole put her up 10 for the day.
Korda birdied the 18th hole, extending his streak of at least one birdie in a round to 188, but missed the cut by one shot, his third consecutive missed cut after winning six of seven tournaments before that.
Korda certainly had company when he had to fight in the afternoon.
Ruoning Yin, the defending champion and No. 3 player in the world, was 5 over on her front nine and also had to worry about making the cut. Yin played the back nine at even par and will play this weekend.
Hae Ran Ryu, like Yang, stood out in the afternoon and tied Schmelzel for the best round of the day with a 67, leaving her tied for sixth place, three shots behind.
Thompson, who led by one shot earlier in the day, got off to another good start.
He moved to 3 under for his round when he made a 6-foot birdie putt on the 17th hole, his eighth hole of the day, to move to 7 under overall and take a two-stroke lead.
But Thompson, up and down from 100 yards on the par-5 18th, wasn’t so lucky when he hit the rough again on the par-5 second, finishing with a double bogey on the 7th.
Another bogey on the eighth hole left her two strokes behind.
“It’s always important to start with a good round, especially after I shot 4 under yesterday,” Thompson said. “Very grateful and I just addressed it today. I had a good front nine and had some hiccups on the back nine, but it happens here.”
Shibuno, who won the 2019 Women’s British Open, finished no better than 50th in her first nine LPGA starts this season before finishing second at the US Women’s Open late last month in the very difficult Lancaster Country Club in Pennsylvania.
“I didn’t have confidence until the US Open,” which she said gave her a lot of confidence going into this week. “At the beginning of the year I had a very bad time.”
Ko has won at least one LPGA Tour event in the last seven years, the longest active streak on the tour. But he has yet to win this year.
“I just tried to play it easy today,” said Ko, who shot a 4-under 68 on Friday. “He
The golf course is a lot of fun, but I try to play calmly.”
That formula puts it in a good position heading into the weekend.
Schmelzel and Yang know they have a lot of work to do.
“I work hard for this and I get nervous, but we have 36 more holes and that’s a lot of golf,” Yang said.
LEADER BOARD
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