Lydia Ko takes Trust Golf Scottish Open lead
Lydia Ko tees of at her 10th hole today – photo Getty Mark Runnacles – LPGA
Lydia Ko will take a two-shot lead into the weekend at the Trust Golf Women’s Scottish Open Championship at the Dunbarnie Links.
Ko, who has recorded five top three finishes in her last seven LPGA Tour starts and is currently the world number 4, added a second consecutive round of 65 to edge two clear of American Lilia Vu who last year finished as the leading money winner on the secondary Epson Tour to earn her LPGA Tour card.
Korea’s Eun-Hee Ji is another shot back in third place.
Ko powered home over her closing nine in 30 to sweep to the lead and after her round described the day’s play.
“I felt like I played more solid yesterday. Today — well, maybe it was the same. I mean, technically I shot the same score anyways. I think I had a few more birdie opportunities today that I missed.
“I think sometimes when you’re giving yourself a lot of looks, I think you can get easily frustrated because not all of them are going to drop. And I think a lot of the times when I was putting for birdie, it was in pretty good range and not that tricky, where I think I was putting pressure on myself, then I would hit a misshot on the next one.
“So I tried to make sure that what happened behind me wasn’t going to affect what was happening in front. I got off to a good rhythm, birdieing the third, and then hit it nearly on the 1 (her 10th hole), on the 4th, and then a great shot into 5.
“So, yeah, I think especially in conditions like this, where the wind is pretty calm and the sun is out, you have to take advantage of it because we all know that over on this side of the world, it can change pretty quick.”
Ko had the better of the conditions on the opening two days but knows that over the weekend, when the field congests in terms of tee times, conditions tend to even out a little.
“Especially over the weekend. Everyone is playing in pretty much similar conditions. I don’t think it changes that much. It can a little bit over the first couple of days just because the amount of players is a lot larger, but on the weekend, everyone is playing in the same conditions. If it’s going to rain and be windy, it’s going to be the same for all.
“So you just have to play with what you get, and those are the aspects that you expect over here. If you do end up surviving four days without rain, you say, wow, what a beautiful week we had, even though it is summer. So it’s almost more surprising when you have four sunny days.
“You just have to embrace it and know the wind and the rain and fescue, all that comes to factor when you’re playing links golf. So you just have to be patient and try and hit good quality shots and see what happens.”
Hannah Green and Minjee Lee are the best of the Australians at 5 under par and a massive nine shots from Ko’s lead.
The West Australian pair were the only two Australians to make it to the weekend with Stephanie Kyriacou, Su Oh and Whitney Hillier missing the cut.
