Pure Silk-Bahamas LPGA Classic Second Round Notes and Interviews

Ocean Club Golf Course
Paradise Island, Bahamas
Second-Round Notes
February 6, 2015

Interviews:

Rolex Rankings No. 83 Sun Young Yoo (-7)
Rolex Rankings No. 20 Brittany Lincicome (-7)
Rolex Rankings No. 45 Jenny Shin (-6)
Rolex Rankings No. 181 Dori Carter (-6)
Rolex Rankings No. 830 Kelly Shon (-6)

Major champions Sun Young Yoo and Brittany Lincicome hold a share of the lead at the suspended Pure Silk-Bahamas LPGA Classic. Play was called on Friday in the second round at 5:44 p.m. due to darkness with 60 players still on the course. Play will resume at 8:00 a.m. on Saturday morning. The duo are tied atop the leaderboard at 7-under par.

60 players finished their first rounds in the morning on Friday leaving players with a quick turnaround for the second-round start at 10:45 a.m.

Yoo and Lincicome, both past winners of the ANA Inspiration, currently lead a group of four players by one shot. The group tied for third includes Rolex Rankings No. 2 Inbee Park (through five holes), Americans Dori Carter (F) and Kelly Shon (F) and South Korea’s Jenny Shin (F).

Yoo, a two-time winner on Tour, finished her second round with the low round of the day, a bogey-free, 4-under 69. Her last victory came nearly three years ago at the ANA

Inspiration.

“It was very tough, especially with the wind. I just tried to stay focused and just tried to make the right putt with the wind. Overall, I think I was doing really good the last two rounds, and I still have two rounds to go, so I’m looking forward to it.”

She’s coming of a tie for eighth finish last week at the Coates Golf Championship Presented by R+L Carriers.

Rolex Rankings No. 1 Lydia Ko finished her second round on Friday with a 2-under 71 and is four shots off the lead at 2-under par.

Leaderboard

WHOA WIND!

Winds played a huge factor all day on Friday with steady winds in the 20 mph range with gusts reaching 35-40 mph. Some players said it was the windiest day they’ve ever seen in competition.

“Pretty close. My caddie actually after we hit our approach shot on the last hole said I’m not going to lie, this is the worst conditions I’ve ever seen wind conditions, wind,” said Carter. “He told me on the last hole. He didn’t say it middle of the round. But we laughed about that. And, yes, it’s pretty crazy, but then again we kind of know that is the Bahamas style and like Hawaii and things like that. You just expect it.”

Rookie Kelly Shon didn’t seem fazed by the heavy breezes but said it was a whole new experience for her.

“Oh, I thought I played some really windy conditions last year at Epson, but this took it to a whole new level,” said Shon.

She recalled watching a PGA Tour event on TV when the flag sticks were bending and had a similar run in on the back nine today.

“I remember watching, maybe it was the Sony Open last year and the PGA TOUR, they had to suspend play because of wind,” said Shon. “I was telling him, when the pin starts bending that way I know it’s pretty bad, and when we got up to 15, right around the water there, it was just like it. I was just waiting for someone to call me off the green right there. So this is probably one of the, maybe the worst wind conditions I’ve played in, yeah.”

DON’T MIND A QUICK TURNAROUND

Dori Carter was one of the players faced with a quick turnaround between the finish of her first round and 11:05 a.m. second round tee time on Friday morning. But the fifth-year LPGA member was happy to continue her momentum she gained from her strong first round finish.

“Yeah, hit a couple of balls, hit a couple of putts,” said Carter. “Grabbed a quick bite to eat, and watched the first groups tee off and went right behind them and kept on going.”

Carter’s back-nine to finish her first round included four birdies and an eagle on No. 11.

“Actually, yeah, because of the morning I had, I was like sure, why not, keep going,” said Carter. “But that’s part of it. And it turns out it’s going to turn out to be fair because the afternoon wave’s probably going to have to do that

tomorrow, so the quick turnaround was not that big of a deal.”

PARASAILING WE GO

Kelly Shon made her LPGA Tour debut as a member this week in the Bahamas and her mom, Kae, gave her a little incentive to make the cut.

“My mom promised me that if I made the cut, I could go parasailing, so that would be an adventure,” said Shon.

“Maybe not today (laughs)… Also, I told her we both had to do it.”

After rounds of 69-71, the Princeton graduate can expect to make the cut and make a reservation to do the excursion with her mom later this week. She said she was somewhat surprised to see herself up toward the top of the

leaderboard. She sits just one shot off the lead at the end of play on Friday. She said finishing her first round on Friday morning and a quick turnaround for the start of the second round turned out to be a good thing.

“I was kind of down because I’m going to have a lot of golf to play today with a lot of wind,” said Shon. “There are a lot of negatives to take from that, but I wasn’t putting the best yesterday, and I think the break was good. When I came out, I was really hot with the putter and just started making everything, so I think I got lucky with that.”

Shon finished birdie-birdie on Nos 17 and 18 to get back to 6-under par after dropping two shots on holes 15 and 16.

“I had two bogeys before that. I don’t know if that makes it better for the birdies or worse,” said Shon. “But, honestly, today was not a day when you can kind of look ahead. You had to stay within yourself and stay focused on the shot right there in front of you. One moment of distraction was a big, big flaw today. It made me think a little bit sharper.”

READY FOR A COMEBACK

Dori Carter knew it would have to get better this week. After opening the season in Ocala with back-to-back rounds of 80, the Georgia native drew inspiration from a quote she read in a book to boost her psyche.

“Yeah, brutal last week. I saw a quote that really inspired me,” said Carter. “It was, ‘A setback is a set up for a comeback.’ So all week I wrote it down in my yardage book. Just because you had that week last week doesn’t mean you have to do it again. I think it was a book that my sports psychologist told me to read, so I’ve just been trying to move on.”

She clearly put the tough week in the past and arrived on Paradise Island with a new attitude that led her to rounds of 68-72, impressive numbers considering the blustery

conditions. She didn’t let the rough start of the year deter her from much and hopes it could be an omen for a great year. The 28-year old had her best year on Tour last season, finishing 70th on the money list and played in all of the fall Asian events for the first time.

Her rookie season was in 2010, but last year was the first she’s played over 20 events. She made 26 starts and made 20 cuts last season.

“Last year was my first year playing pretty well, and then I got off to a great start and then I kind of like flattened a little bit at the end,” said Carter. “So I worked really hard on trying to prepare myself for a full Tour season, and maybe build some endurance and maybe to try to know what’s coming ahead and mentally prepare. So I also took a lot of rest and took some time off, got away from it. Now I feel like I’m no longer a rookie in a way.”