Jeeno Thitikul shot her second straight round of 6-under-par 66 to take the lead after 36 holes at the Kroger Queen City Championship on Friday in Maineville, Ohio.
The former World No. 1 from Thailand has a one-shot lead over future Hall of Famer Lydia Ko of New Zealand, who also posted a second-round 66 to get to 11 under. South Korea’s Haeran Ryu fired a 7-under 65 to move into third at 10 under.
Thitikul and her peers have been enjoying TPC River’s Bend, the first-time host of this event while Cincinnati’s Kenwood Country Club undergoes a renovation project.
“I think it’s really kind of a low-score course, so a lot of players kind of get low on this course,” Thitikul said. “So like par-5 is reachable, (I) can make all the par-5s.”
Thitikul birdied all four par-5 holes on the course Friday. After starting on the back nine with four birdies and carding her lone bogey of the day at No. 1, she finished with three birdies in her closing four holes.
Thitikul, 21, is searching for her first individual LPGA win in two years. She teamed up with China’s Ruoning Yin to win the Dow Championship, the tour’s lone team event, in June.
“Just looking forward for good golf and enjoyable golf out there,” Thitikul said. “I think a lot of good vibes coming from me, starting from like Olympics. … I mean, I just want to play my game. Just want control on my side, not on others.”
She’ll play in the final group Saturday with Ko, who is out to continue a historic summer that saw her not only win Olympic gold and the AIG Women’s Open, but also clinch enough career points to be inducted into the LPGA Hall of Fame.
“I obviously came off an amazing three-week stretch in Europe,” Ko said. “You know, in ways I wanted to make sure that I came back to the ground and worked on the basics and the things I’ve been working on the past few months.”
Ko is bogey-free through 36 holes. Her highlight Friday was an eagle at the par-5 eighth from off the green.
“I kind of felt left out because Charley (Hull) hit it to like 15 feet for eagle, Rose (Zhang) hit it to like two feet and I had missed the green,” Ko said. “So I was like, âMan, I want to at least make up and down for a birdie.’ I hit (her third shot) exactly the way that I was envisioning. As soon as it came off the club face and landed, Charley said, âGood shot,’ and like five seconds later it went in the hole.”
Ryu had an eventful round: After an early birdie and bogey, she made five consecutive birdies at Nos. 5-9, then holed an eagle at the par-5 11th before making pars the rest of the way.
Maria Fassi and Gaby Lopez, both of Mexico, shot 67 Friday and are tied for fourth with Yealimi Noh (67) and China’s Yan Liu (69). A large tie at 8 under includes two Solheim Cup players from Team Europe, Anna Nordqvist of Sweden (65) and Albane Valenzuela of Switzerland (66).
World No. 1 Nelly Korda (70) is tied for 15th at 7 under. First-round leader Ashleigh Buhai of South Africa struggled to a 73 to drop into a tie for 23rd at 6 under.
Notables to miss the cut of 1 under par included Rose Zhang (even par) and Danielle Kang (1 over).
