July 18-20
Midland Country Club, Midland, Michigan
$2,000,000
Round 1, Round 2, Round 4

Cydney Clanton and Jasmine (Thidapa) Suwannapura shot a 7-under 63 in alternate-shot play Friday to open a five-stroke lead in the Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational, the LPGA Tour's first-year team event.

They birdied five of the last seven holes on the front nine and played the last five holes in 2 under, making three birdies and a bogey.

"I think because we pretty chill, like 'You hit a bad shot, like OK, I'll fix it, don't worry,'" Suwannapura said. "So everybody kind of like relaxing the game today, so the result pretty good."

They had a 16-under 194 total at Midland Country Club, with a best-ball round left Saturday.

"Each hole's an opportunity," Clanton said. "How many opportunities can we give ourselves. One of those things where as many fairways and greens as you can hit and if the putts go in, great."

Suwannapura, from Thailand, won the Marathon Classic last year for her lone LPGA Tour title. Clanton is winless on the tour. They had an alternate-shot 67 on Wednesday and shot a best-ball 64 on Thursday.

Weather adjusts Saturday schedule

Due to a storm system forecasted to affect the Great Lakes Bay region on Saturday afternoon, tee times for the final round of the 2019 Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational will be adjusted to 7 a.m. to 8:57 a.m., with teams teeing off the first and 10th tees. Gates will open to the public at 7 a.m. with an estimated finish time of 2:15 p.m., depending on weather conditions.

Jutanugarn sisters go low

The sister duo of Ariya Jutanugarn and Moriya Jutanugarn started the day five strokes off the lead in a tie for 23rd. After a bogey-free 64 on Saturday, the Jutanugarns are still five strokes off the lead, but this time in a tie for second with five other teams. Younger sister Ariya particularly enjoyed this second day of foursomes play after having the opportunity settle into the format in Wednesday's first round.

“I felt like in the first round, I don't want to miss any shot because I don't want my sister to have like tough shot and I was kind of worried and scared,” said Ariya Jutanugarn. “Today we already make the cut and nothing to lose, so we keep playing golf.”

Moriya Jutanugarn agreed with her sister, saying, “It's so hard to find momentum of two players, like two together. And, you know, it's just like today is better because you have play, you know, foursome in the first round already and you kind of feel like more relaxed.”

The Korda sisters have combined for seven LPGA Tour victories (five for Jessica and two for Nelly), while the Jutanugarns have 11 wins between them (10 for Ariya and one for Moriya). Only two other sets of sisters have both won on the LPGA Tour – Annika Sorenstam (72 wins) and Charlotta Sorenstam (one win), and Jessica Korda (five wins) and Nelly Korda (two wins) – while 10 total sets of sisters have played on Tour.

Liu and Feng making the most of Dow GLBI

Riuxin Liu and Simin Feng , aka Team Dumpling, stormed out of the gate yesterday at the Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational, posting an 8-under four-ball round to sit comfortably at T10 going into the third day. After switching back to foursomes, the duo stayed consistent and finished today tied for second at -11. 

“I think it's just after the best ball you kind of has like certain expectations since it's like 8-under round for us yesterday and today we know a different perspective. So you just try to be patient when you're not making birdies, so I think that helps us a lot,” said Liu.

Yesterday, the partners said their strategy for today was to go with the flow. “We said we're not going to expect a lot out of this round,” said Feng. “But I think as much as we were expecting, we got a lot more out of that than what we were expecting.”

The friends are both searching for their first win on the LPGA Tour. Feng's career-best finish is T6 from the 2016 COATES Golf Championship. Liu, a 2019 rookie, remembers the feeling of being in the winner's circle from her recent Symetra Tour experience. She finished first in the Volvik Race to the Card in 2018 with three wins, and became the sixth person in Symetra Tour history to surpass $100,000 in single-season earnings ($124,839). She said being close to the top is a definite confidence boost for Team Dumpling.

“It will be a really huge honor to be in contention, so I will just try to be patient and be myself and play my game and don't think about anything else,” said Liu.

Shin and Choi are in sync heading into final round

On Friday at the Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational, “Team Insynch” of Na Yeon Choi and Jenny Shin improved in the foursomes format, posting a 3-under round with just one bogey. Choi was pleased they were able to make a move up the leaderboard at Midland Country Club as they enter the final round tied for second.

“I think even on Wednesday we did a great job,” said Choi, a major champion at the 2012 U.S. Women's Open. “The only one thing that we made one or two bogeys, I think two bogeys on Wednesday from three-putts, both three-putts. So that wasn't like I felt something I left on the course after the first round. But today even we had one bogey, but we made a lot of save, like par save. So I think we both did a really good job.”

The pair from the Republic of Korea will enter the final four-ball round on Saturday five shots back of leaders Suwannapura and Clanton. Shin is looking for her second career LPGA victory on Saturday and first since 2016, while Choi is looking for her 10th career LPGA win and first since 2015.

While Shin would love to hoist the trophy along with her good friend and partner, she's focused on a good finish in the four-ball format where they fired a 64 during the second round four-ball.