Talk about taking advantage on moving day! The Navistar Classic's one and only defending champion Maria Hjorth led the way with a blistering 63, bringing her total to -9 for the tournament and her within 4 shots of co-leaders Louise Friberg (65) and Lorena Ochoa (69). Candie Kung's 65 got her to -10 for the tournament--the 10th player to reach double digits under par thus far. If Shi Hyun Ahn hadn't made 2 bogeys on the back, she would have joined that group--as it is, her 65 lifted her to -8 for the tournament. She became the 19th player to end the day within 5 shots of the lead, tied with Heather Daly-Donofrio and 1 shot behind Wendy Doolan, who both shot 66s of their own. (It was Doolan's 1st round of the tournament in which she didn't make a hole in one or a quadruple bogey!)
Higher up the leaderboard, Song-Hee Kim's 69 made her the only player to join Ochoa in shooting 3 straight sub-70 rounds. She remains 2 shots behind the world #1, along with Christina Kim (69), 2nd-round leader Janice Moodie (72), Michele Redman (70), and Ya Ni Tseng (the only player in this bunch to actually make up ground on Ochoa with her 68).
Scoring has been lower than I expected this week: most players in contention have shot at least 1 round of 67 or better. You'll definitely need to go below 70 at least 3 times to win this thing. If Ochoa and Song-Hee Kim can't bend probabilities their way, they're going to get passed by half a dozen people among the top 21 who go really low tomorrow. But who? Cristie Kerr? Katherine Hull? Jane Park? Shanshan Feng? Na On Min? Should be very very interesting on the back 9 tomorrow afternoon!
[Update 1 (7:19 pm): Check out LPGA.com's notes and interviews page when you get a chance.]
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