KIM KEEPS IT EASY IN SECOND-ROUND 61
So how exactly did Sei Young Kim light up Columbia Edgewater Country Club for her second-round 61. Four words – she kept it simple. The nine-time LPGA Tour winner decided she was getting too entrenched in the numbers of the game and instead focused on keeping her play as streamlined as possible.
“I got too many numbers. I need a number, a lot of number, but I realize it’s not helping my golf,” said Kim, who bettered her first-round 71 by a whopping 10 strokes on Friday. “So I told (caddie) Paul (Fusco), just give me one number. I'm just going to hit the pin. That's the only one way. So we did a great job today.”
Kim’s 11-under 61 is the first 61 on a par-72 course since Anna Nordqvist in the third round of the 2017 Bank of Hope Founders Cup. It was the second time Kim returned a round of 61, joining thesecond round of the 2018 ShopRite LPGA Classic.
NEW PUTTING GRIP WORKING FOR GREEN
The adage “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” must not be a saying in Australia. After winning the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship with a left-hand-low putting style, Hannah Green decided to shake things up, changing her grip to a conventional style heading into the Aberdeen Standard Investments Ladies Scottish Open in early August.
“Growing up, I used to putt conventionally and about three years ago, I went to left-hand-low. At the time it was better for me just to get wrist action out of it, but I actually feel a lot more solid than I do left-hand-low,” said Green. “It's just more of a feel thing. I mean, I don't know if my coach was happy about it. He did ask me whether, you know, whether I really needed to do it, but I think just for a pure confidence thing, that's what I wanted to do.”
It’s taken Green a few weeks to truly feel her putting coming together, as she tied for 55th in Scotland and missed last week’s cut in Canada. This week in Portland, however, has been a different story. She needed just 50 putts over her first two days, tied with Muni He and Yealimi Noh for the fewest in the field.
PLAYER NOTES
Rolex Rankings No. 26 Hannah Green (64-63)
- Green’s second-round 63 is the lowest round of her LPGA career, besting the 64 she shot in yesterday’s first round of the Cambia Portland Classic
- Her 127 is the 36 54-hole score of her career and sets the 36-hole scoring record at the Cambia Portland Classic; her previous personal best was 136 at the Indy Women in Tech Championship
- She hit 11 of 14 fairways and 16 of 18 greens, with 27 putts
- This is Green’s second season on the LPGA Tour; she has one victory at the 2019 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship
- This is Green’s 17th event of the 2019 LPGA Tour season; she won the 2019 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship and three other top-20 finishes
- She is competing in her second Cambia Portland Classic; she missed the cut in 2018
Rolex Rankings No. 11 Sei Young Kim (71-61)
- Kim’s second-round 61 is tied for the lowest round of her LPGA career and sets the 18-hole scoring record at the Cambia Portland Classic; she also shot a 61 in the second round of the 2018 ShopRite LPGA Classic
- She hit nine of 14 fairways and 14 of 18 greens, with 23 putts
- Kim is in her fifth season on the LPGA Tour; she has nine career victories, including two in 2019
- This was Kim’s 19th event of the 2019 LPGA Tour season; she won the LPGA MEDIHEAL Championship and the Marathon Classic presented by Dana, and has two other top-10 finishes
- She is competing in her second Cambia Portland Classic; she missed the cut in 2018
- Kim owns the LPGA’s 72-hole scoring record at 31-under 257, which she set in her victory at the 2018 Thornberry Creek LPGA Classic
Rolex Rankings No. 2 Sung Hyun Park (67-65)
- She hit nine of 14 fairways and 14 of 18 greens, with 28 putts
- Park is in her third season on the LPGA Tour; she has seven wins, most recently at last week’s Walmart NW Arkansas Championship
- This was Park’s 16th event of the 2019 LPGA Tour season; she won the HSBC Women’s World Championship and the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship
- She is competing in her first Cambia Portland Classic
- Park tied with So Yeon Ryu for 2017 Rolex Player of the Year honors and clinched the 2017 Louise Suggs Rolex Player of the Year Award with five events remaining on the schedule, becoming the first player to win Rookie of the Year and Player of the Year awards in the same year since Nancy Lopez in 1978
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