It’s crowded at the top, but Ariya Jutanugarn shook off a sluggish start to maintain her lead atop the leaderboard after two rounds at the LPGA Kingsmill Championship Friday.
Things didn’t come near as easy for Jutanugarn as they appeared to on Thursday, however, when Jutanugarn birdied six of her first seven holes en route to shooting a 7-under 64.
After three bogeys on the front nine quickly dropped Jutanugarn to 4-under, it appeared that youth was finally catching up to the 17-year-old Thailand native, who is playing on a sponsor exemption since she’s too young to apply for an official tour card.
Not quite.
Jutanugarn regrouped to birdie three holes in the back nine – including an impressive 45-yard putt on the par three No. 5 – and move back to even for the day and 7-under for the tournament.
She leads Angela Stanford and Stacy Lewis by one stroke entering Saturday’s third round. Stanford and Lewis both shot back-to-back 3-under-par 68 Thursday and Friday to enter the weekend at 6-under.
Suzann Pettersen, Sandra Gal and Cristie Kerr are two shots back at 5-under, six others are at 4-under and 14 others have shot under par and remain in striking distance entering the final two days of competition.
The usually aggressive Jutanugarn, known for aiming at the pin and firing away, said she played too cautious after bogeying her first hole of the day. After two more bogeys on the front nine, she said she reverted back to her carefree style, which paved the way to her success on the back nine.
“When I first start I don’t want to play it safe,” Jutanugarn said. “But when I had bogey come on first hole that makes me [play] safe. Then I have two more bogeys so it make me want to go back to my game on the back nine.
“And right now for me everybody still have chance to win, so I just do my best my last two days.”
