Yealimi Noh’s second round at the TOTO Japan Classic took an unexpected turn, or rather bounce, at her fifth hole on Friday.

Noh says she hit her second shot to the par-4, fifth hole at Seta Golf Course well left of her intended target and hit a cart path. And while the unintended consequences of striking a cart path can range from ugly to unbelievable, to Noh’s relief, her kick off the unpredictable surface was a favorable one that positioned her nearly on the putting surface. Noh converted her third shot, a putt from off the green, for her third birdie of the day which set off a string of four consecutive birdies en route to a round of 65. She sits just two strokes behind 36-hole leader Hana Wakimoto of Japan heading into the weekend.

“Yeah, I got lucky,” Noh said after her round on Friday about her good fortune at the fifth hole. “It hit the cart path and got back on close to the green, like an inch from the green, and I started the birdie run there, so that was nice.”

Noh’s putt from the fringe on Friday doesn’t technically count towards her putts per G.I.R, but when she did find the green on day two at the TOTO Japan Classic she needed just 20 putts, the fewest in the field. Noh credits a switch she made last year to a broomstick putter for the biggest improvement to her putting, which has failed her in recent years. Since her standout rookie year, in which she earned a spot in the U.S. Solheim Cup team on her first attempt, she has dropped from 43rd to 116th on Tour in putting.

Noh’s equipment change is just one aspect of what has been an effort for Noh to get back to basics, to put in time with her coach, and to reestablish her fundamentals. In 2023, Noh missed the cut in half her starts and recorded three top 10s combined over her last two years on Tour. It was a rough run that Noh says tested her patience and led her to seek mental training.

“My swing has just been coming back together,” Noh said about how her game has improved in recent weeks. “I was really struggling last year with everything, my shots and my putting. But my putting has got a lot better with the broomstick and then just my swing is really coming around and I’m hitting it back to how I used to hit it.”

Noh has been hitting it like she’s used to not just this week in Japan but throughout the LPGA Tour’s swing through Asia. Noh is playing her fourth consecutive week of the swing, which began at the Buick LPGA Shanghai and where she earned her best finish of the year, a fourth-place finish in which she recorded four rounds in the 60s for the first time in 2024. Noh posted on Instagram after the week wrapped up about how fun it was to be back in contention and playing solid golf once more.

“Asia is amazing. I love coming back and it was hard to choose which ones not to go to,” Noh said about teeing it up in each of the Tour’s four tournaments in Asia. “It's been a lot of travel, and it's definitely been tiring, and I’m running out of energy, but playing in front of these crowds and being at this course has given me more energy to get through it.”

Lucky break leads to birdie run for Noh in Japan

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