Massachusetts Native Megan Khang Representing Home State Well at FM Championship

NORTON, Mass. — Megan Khang is making Massachusetts proud through two rounds at the FM Championship.

The 2023 CPKC Women’s Open champion, who hails from Rockland, Mass., carded a 2-under 70 to kick off the week in her home state, making one bogey and three birdies on what was a challenging Thursday at TPC Boston. She then battled her way to a 1-under 71 on Friday, toughing out a rollercoaster round to ultimately sit in a tie for 12th at 3-under overall, 10 shots back of 36-hole leader Haeran Ryu before the start of round three.

It was a slow start for Khang as she bogeyed her first hole of day two, but she recovered immediately, picking up a pair of back-to-back birdies to move to 3-under overall. She dropped back to 2-under with another bogey on 14, again erasing that mistake by rattling off three consecutive birdies on holes 15, 16 and 17 to climb to 5-under for the tournament.

Khang stumbled for a third time with a bogey on the difficult par-5 18th hole and made the turn in 34, hoping to settle down a bit on her closing nine. She parred her first two holes before making another bogey on the par-3 3rd hole, and Khang then double-bogeyed the par-4 4th hole, now sitting at 1-under for the tournament with five holes to play.

But the LPGA Tour veteran didn’t give up. She steadied herself with pars on her next three holes and then threw a one-two punch of birdies at TPC Boston on the par-3 8th and par-4 9th holes to post a second-round 71 and move back to 3-under overall.

“For those who haven't seen my scorecard, you can take a peek, and it's very much a rollercoaster ride,” Khang said. “To be able to reel it back in and finish birdie-birdie to go in, I'm 10 back of Haeran (Ryu), who shot an incredible 10-under today. It’s super impressive what she did. Now, I guess 10-under is out there.

“Going to have some work to do for the weekend, but definitely excited to be playing the weekend in front of a home crowd.”

This is Khang’s 17th event of the 2024 LPGA Tour season, and even though she has missed six cuts, it has been an incredibly solid year for the 26-year-old. She finished in the top 15 in three of her first four starts of the season, most notably coming third at the LPGA Drive on Championship. Khang has since earned four additional top 15s, two of which were top-five results that came at the ShopRite LPGA Classic presented by when she tied for second and the ISPS Handa Women's Scottish Open when Khang tied for third.

Despite coming close a couple of times, Khang’s second career LPGA Tour victory has continued to elude her. But she is a player who is well-practiced in patience, having waited 191 starts to become a Rolex First-Time Winner on the LPGA Tour last August, so Khang knows that if she keeps knocking on the door, it will eventually swing open and reveal that second LPGA Tour title.

But for now, Khang has got 36 more holes of golf to play, and after Haeran Ryu posted a 10-under 62 in the second round to sit at 13-under overall, the home-state hero has quite the deficit to chip away at if she wants a chance at victory in her home state of Massachusetts, a challenge that Khang is more than ready to tackle at TPC Boston.

“(The weekend is) going to be a lot of fun,” said Khang. “I have a lot of family that's coming out because I had some last-minute texts for tickets. I'm more than happy to help them out and show them how great these girls are, not only for myself but just on a Tour level.

“It's an amazing feeling when you make those long putts on the last two holes where you get the crowd kind of going. It got a little flat because I couldn't make anything in the middle. It's really cool having the crowd behind you. I think they all saw that I was a little frustrated as well. Those pick-me-ups going to the next tee definitely helped me stay in a positive mindset.”