HONOLULU — Natthakritta Vongtaveelap shot a 2-under 70 at windy Hoakalei Nation Membership to carry onto a share of the lead Thursday within the LOTTE Championship.
Making her second LPGA Tour begin, the 20-year-old Thai participant had 4 birdies and two bogeys within the second spherical to match sponsor invite Yu Jin Sung at 8-under 136.
“Besides windy,” Vongtaveelap stated. “Wind, I be taught from right here quite a bit.”
In February, Vongtaveelap gained her first two occasions as professional on the Thai LPGA Tour, then was second behind Lilia Vu within the LPGA Thailand. She opened with a bogey-free 66 on Wednesday to share the first-round lead with Frida Kinhult.
Sung had her second straight 68. The South Korean participant had 5 birdies and a bogey. The winner of the 2022 LOTTE Open on the Korean LPGA, she’s competing in her third LPGA Tour occasion.
“It was actually windy right this moment after which simply bodily condition-wise, I am nonetheless getting used to the jet lag, so it was powerful,” Sung stated. “Luckily, the wind route was the identical as yesterday, so it was simple to regulate.”
Georgia Corridor and Linnea Strom have been a stroke again. Corridor, from England, had a 66, and Strom, from Sweden, shot a 67.
“The primary 4, 5 holes was perhaps a club-and-a-half wind, after which after that it obtained as much as like after I performed yesterday afternoon,” Corridor stated. “It is fairly windy on the market nonetheless, so fairly powerful circumstances.”
Strom rebounded from two consecutive late bogeys to shut together with her eighth birdie of the day.
“I am simply very pleased with how I dealt with myself within the wind,” Strom stated. “I simply was affected person and simply took one gap at a time.”
Grace Kim (67), Christina Kim (67) and Nasa Hataoka (70) have been 6 below. Lauren Hartlage (70) was 5 below.
Kinhult dropped six photographs behind, following her opening 66 with a 76.
Defending champion Hyo Joo Kim additionally struggled, making late consecutive double bogeys in a 78 that left her 10 strokes again.
The Chevron Championship, the primary ladies’s main championship of the yr, is subsequent week in Texas.
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