Five birdies on a spotless scorecard and a share of the HSBC Women’s World Championship lead might count as a good day’s work for most, but not for Ko Jin-young.
The first order of business for the world No. 1 after finalising her five-under 67 at the scoring tent and completing her media duties was to head straight for the Sentosa Golf Club driving range.
Ko is tied atop the leaderboard with fellow South Korean Amy Yang, who also carded a 67, at eight-under 136, but felt concerned enough about her swing to put in some overtime.
Ko, 26, said: “It felt a little different on the back nine, more comfortable. So I want to find out what went wrong at the beginning. Is it a mental thing or maybe I didn’t warm up properly and I needed to stretch more before my tee time.”
To the untrained eye however, there appears little amiss with Ko’s game. She hit 12 of 14 fairways and while she missed five greens in regulations, her putting – she took just 26 putts – on the New Tanjong Course greens was razor-sharp.
After a double bogey and bogey in Thursday’s front nine, Ko has not dropped a shot in 29 holes, an ominous sign for the chasing pack.
At 32 and into her 15th year on the LPGA Tour, few things faze Yang and certainly not the prospect of going head-to-head with her compatriot and reigning Player of the Year.
Yang, whose four Tour wins have come in Asia, was satisfied with her ball-striking but said she was more pleased with her mental efforts.
“After each shot, each hole, your mind goes everywhere and it’s easy to overthink. It’s difficult to stay focused but I try my best. I’m pretty quiet in life so I like to keep it that way too on the course.”
She and Ko can expect some interference from the chasing pack. There are 18 players within four shots of the leaders, with Canada’s Brooke Henderson, American Megan Khang and Atthaya Thitikul the nearest. The trio shot 68s and are one back on 137.
Rookie Atthaya, 19, was among the leaders but bogeys on No. 13 and 15 halted her momentum.
Fellow Thai Pajaree Anannarukarn (69), South Koreans Chun In-gee (68) and Kim A-lim (70) and Angel Yin (69) of the United States were a further stroke back.
A closing bogey on the par-four 18th would usually be a source of annoyance for Chun but she was focused on pain elsewhere.
She had suffered a neck spasm on Thursday and while the on-site physios and Advil were able to help alleviate it a little, the 27-year-old was still in some discomfort when she teed off yesterday.
“It was really quite bad, especially during the back swing. So I could only do quarter, half swings today,” she said, adding that her target was just to finish the round.
“My target was to just finish the round and I’m happy I did. Hopefully tomorrow, I feel much better and I can play well.”
American Yealimi Noh had the low round of the day, her 64 was 11 shots better than Thursday’s efforts, and moved her up the leaderboard to 139 with several others, including two-time HSBC event winner Park In-bee and world No. 4 Danielle Kang. Both shot 71.
Overnight leader Patty Tavatanakit struggled to a 74, leaving her on 141. Defending champion Kim Hyo-joo shot 70 and was on 142, tied with others like former world No. 1 Lydia Ko (73).
Singapore’s Koh Sock Hwee, the country’s sole representative at the US$1.7 million (S$2.3 million) tournament, shot 79 and was 64th and last on 15-over 159.
