P&G NW Arkansas Championship – 2nd Round

Meena Lee fired a 65 to reach -12 and is tied for the lead with Eun-Hee Ji (who only completed 16 holes) going into Sunday’s action at the P&G NW Arkansas Championship. Kristy McPherson, Angela Park and Seon Hwa Lee are tied for third at -11 while Jeong Jang, Jee Young Lee and Ai Miyazato are tied for sixth at -9.

Second round play was suspended due to darkness at 9:20pm EDT with 70 players (all of the “afternoon” starters) still on the course, including Ji, Seon Hwa Lee and Miyazato. Play will resume at 7:30am EDT. Of those who finished, the biggest mover was Park – her 62 was the Round of the Day. Meena Lee and Cristie Kerr put up 65s to place a distant second in that category. Ji is also -7 on her round with two more holes to play. Incredibly, Park’s back-nine 30 included a bogey at 12. She birdied seven of the other eight holes. Add in the four she bagged on the front side and that totals eleven birdies on the day for Angela.

As of the moment, the cut sits at -1 but if only two of the six players currently at that number go any lower, it will go to -2. Unless the wind is blowing a gale tomorrow morning, the players at even or worse will be done. Those include Brittany Lang and Mi Hyun Kim.

I’ll post an update in the morning with the cut info and current standings. Lpga.com is announcing that they will be streaming live action beginning at 3pm Sunday which means two things: They have no hope of completing play by that time, and CBS has no intention of sticking with the LPGA until the conclusion lest they cut into the PGA time. Such is life in our second-fiddle universe.

UPDATE 10:20am: The cut did move to -2 for a short time this morning but ended up at -1. Making it through are Minea Blomqvist, Jimin Kang, In-Kyung Kim and Meg Mallon. Joining Lang and Peanut on the outs are Erica Blasberg, Pat Hurst, Ashleigh Simon and Grace Park. Grace was -1 overnight but double-bogeyed 15 and bogeyed 17 this morning to knock herself out.

12 players are within four shots of the lead and 18 are within five:

-12 Meena Lee, Eun-Hee Ji
-11 Kristy McPherson, Angela Park, Seon Hwa Lee
-9 Jeong Jang, Jee Young Lee, Inbee Park, Ai Miyazato, H.J. Choi
-8 Na Yeon Choi, Louise Friberg
-7 Karen Stupples, Cristie Kerr, Helen Alfredsson
-7 Heather Young, Na Ri Kim, Il Mi Chung

Usually I say anybody within six has a reasonable chance to win but I believe the players at -6 have too many elites to pass. It looks like a Sunday Free-for-all, but Seon Hwa Lee is the one that jumps out at me. Too bad CBS isn’t going to let us see the finish. With McPherson as the only American in the top 12, they probably think we don’t care to see it anyway.