Pornanong Phatlum followed yesterday’s eight-under 64, with a six-under 66 on Friday and at 14-under will take a one-shot lead into the weekend at the Safeway Classic presented by Coca Cola being played at the Columbia Edge Country Club in Portland, Oregon.
A 72-hole event for the time, the tournament is back at Columbia Edgewater after four years at Pumpkin Ridge. Columbia Edgewater also was the tournament site from 1990-2008.
Phatlum, a 23-year-old from Chaiyaphum, Thailand, started the day with a one shot lead over American Lexi Thompson. She made 10 birdies yesterday, offset by two bogeys, but today she went bogey free and birdied three of the final four holes to secure the one shot lead over the World’s No. 3 player, Norway’s Suzann Pettersen.
Pettersen, the 2011 winner, also went bogey free and shot a nine-under 63 for the tournament’s lowest round thus far. She started on the back nine today, and got going early with birdies in three of her first four holes.
She would alternate birdies and pars from her 12th hole (Par-4 third), and close her final nine in 32. Pettersen had trouble finding the fairways today. Contrary to Phatlum who found 12-of-14, Pettersen only got six-of-14. But she compensated with her iron game and putting, reaching 15-of-18 greens-in-regulation and making only 24 putts.
Pettersen leapfrogged from a T-20t hat the start of the day to solo second with her brilliant performance on Friday totaling 13-under through the first two rounds. In third and fourth are Germans Sandra Gal and Caroline Masson respectively.
Gal followed the bogey-free scoring trend of the day’s leaders. She started two shots behind Phatlum, T-3rd, and she kept tracking her, by also going bogey-free while matching Phatlum’s six-under today. Gal also shot six-under yesterday and got to solo third when she birdied her last hole of the day, the Par-4 ninth.
Masson, you guessed right, she also went bogey free and made a huge leap in the leaderboard from T-35th all the way to solo fourth thanks to her eight-under 64 on Friday. She started the day at three-under and caught fire from the start with birdies on her first three holes.
She would add two more on seven and eight and made the turn with a 31 at eight-under. She would bogey three-of-four from the 11th hole, but would ‘cool down’ making pars on her last four holes. Accuracy off the tee or with the irons was not her forté today, but her putting was dead-on as she made a startling 22 putts today.
In a three-way T-5th at 10-under were Americans Cristie Kerr, winner in 2008, Lizette Salas and Sandra Changkija. Kerr and Salas started the day T-3rd along with Gal, two shots behind Phatlum, while Changkija was in the big group T-20th at four-under of which Pettersen was a part of.
Kerr was yet another player to go bogey-free today. She started on the back nine and birdie her second hole, the Par-4 11th. But her next birdie came right after she made the turn on the Par-4 first to move to eight-under. Three holes later at the Par-5 fifth, she would get to the green in two shots, and would sink her eagle-putt reaching her current total of 10-under.
Salas started on the back nine, and made three birdies on her first three, but would break the bogey-free trend of the leaders by making a bogey on the Par-4 17th. That would be the only blemish on her card today though, as she would birdie the Par-3 second and Par-4 sixth to get to 10-under and into the three-way tie.
Changkija, who is ranked 370 in the Rolex Rankings on her second year on tour, started on the back nine and made the turn at four-under after a birdie-bogey sequence on the 12th and 13th holes. But she went to work on her back nine where she birdied four of the first five holes before making a bogey on the Par-4 sixth.
But the 24-year-old from Orlando, Florida would bounce back and eagle the Par-5 seventh and follow that up with a birdie on the Par-3 eight hole. She would par her last hole, the Par-4 ninth, but will start the weekend in good shape, four shots from the leader.
Rounding up the Top 10 in a T-8th at nine-under are: former World’s No. 1 Yani Tseng, Lexi Thompson and Hall of Famer veteran Se Ri Pak.
Tseng went bogey-free yesterday en route to her five-under, but started the day today with a bogey on the opening hole. She would keep her scorecard clean the rest of the way, scoring birdies on 12th, 13th and 15th on the back nine and reaching her nine-under current total.
Thompson started the day just one shot off the lead, but would make a bogey on the Par-4 second falling quickly two shots behind. She would battle back into a fight for the lead after making three straight birdies from the fifth hole before a bogey on the Par-3 eight.
Thompson would get that shot back by making a birdie on the Par-4 ninth before closing out her round with nine straight pars in the back nine. She would be able to score only a two-under today and is five shots from the leader Phatlum.
Pak has been playing outstanding through the first two rounds. Yesterday she opened with a five-under product of six birdies and just one bogey, and today she played bogey-free with birdies on the first two holes and two more on 14th and 15th. Strong outing so far for the 35-year-old five-time Major Champion.
World’s No. 2 ranked player, Stacy Lewis, returning to play after withdrawing from the CN Canadian Women's Open last week because of illness, opened yesterday with a 67 and shot a two-under 70 today sitting in a T-21st at seven-under.
Defending champion Mika Miyazato opened with a 71 and followed it with another 71 and is currently T-66th at four-under.
Top-ranked Inbee Park withdrew Tuesday because of flu-like symptoms. Paula Creamer pulled out Thursday morning, citing personal reasons.