Mitchell TOC – 2nd Round

Juli Inkster and Moira Dunn share the second round lead at the Mitchell Company Tournament Of Champions. Inkster’s 69 and Dunn’s 67 leave them at -8 with Cristie Kerr alone in third at -7 after her round of 66.

With no lift-clean-place allowed and the greens starting to dry out, scoring was quite a bit higher Friday. Only the three players atop the leaderboard plus Brittany Lincicome (69) broke 70 after 16 players did in Round One. Dunn’s round would have been the best of the day if not for a double at 10. That honor went to Kerr, whose highlight was an eagle at 16. Inkster was up-and-down early but caught fire with three birdies over the last six. Paula Creamer struggled to a 74 (including a double at 15) but remains only two behind. Lorena Ochoa opened with an 8 at the par-4 1st hole but played -3 the rest of the way to end up -5. Karen Stupples climbed into a tie for fifth with Ochoa and Stacy Prammanasudh with birdies on three of the last four holes.

Moira Dunn was the only surprise from the first round to repeat her success on Friday – Hilary Lunke (77 +2), Jimin Kang (76 +1) and Liselotte Neumann (77 -1) all fell off the pace. Dunn’s performance is basically “out of nowhere” – today’s 67 was her best round of 2006, her best finish this year was T25 at the ShopRite in June and she has missed the cut 14 times in 23 starts. She is in this event due to winning the Giant Eagle event in 2004, which is her only career victory in 12 seasons.