US Women’s Open R2

US Womens 2021 R2
June 03-06
The Olympic Club (Lake Course), San Francisco, CA
$5,500,000
Round 1, Round 3, Round 4

Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

Yuka Saso shot six birdies and two bogeys for a 4-under 67 to reach 6-under and take the 36-hole lead at The Olympic Club. She tied for the second-lowest round of the day but not without a struggle as she hit only six fairways and had to contend with Olympic’s thick rough.

US Womens 2021 R2

“If I go in the rough, my mindset is just to go for the fairway,” said Saso. “It’s really long and like sticky, so yeah, it’s really hard to get on from it. But yeah, I’m glad that I’m a little bit good out of it.”

To compensate, Saso has been one of the strongest putters this week, hitting 66.6% greens in regulation and tied for second with 53 total putts. 

US Womens 2021 R2

This is her second time this year in the lead at the halfway point following the LOTTE Championship in April. Should she win she would become the 31st player to win an LPGA Tour title as a non-Member. It would also be the third consecutive year with a non-Member taking a major title, following A Lim Kim (2020 U.S. Women’s Open), Sophia Popov (2020 AIG Women’s Open) and Hinako Shibuno (2019 AIG Women’s Open).

Jeongeun Lee6 birdied the 15th 16th and 17th to earn solo second at 5-under. Behind her are Megan Khang and amateur Megha Ganne in a tie for third at 4-under.

US Womens 2021 R2

Overnight co-leader Ganne carded an even-par 71 on Friday and is enjoying her new-found spotlight, even getting a Twitter shoutout from the governor of her native New Jersey.

“I wish every event I had a gallery watching me because it just makes me play better, I think,” said Ganne. “And I love being in the spotlight, so it’s been really fun.”

US Womens 2021 R2

Inbee Park, the 2008 and 2013 champion, closed with a 69 and set the championship record for the most sub-par rounds with 25 having previously been tied for first with Beth Daniel and Betsy King. Park moves to the weekend at 2-under, in a tie for seventh with fellow major champions Lexi Thompson and Ariya Jutanugarn.

“There aren’t that many holes that I can actually make a birdie on this golf course,” said Park. “I really tried to take advantage of the par-5s when I hit the short irons, which I did.”

2020 U.S. Women’s Open champion A Lim Kim finished at 7-over and missed the cut by one shot. She becomes the first defending champion to miss the cut since Sung Hyun Park in 2018. 

Other players who missed it include U.S. Women’s Open champions Park (+8), Paula Creamer (+9), Brittany Lang (+9), Cristie Kerr (+10) and Michelle Wie West (+12), as well as AIG Women’s Open winners Hinako Shibuno (+7) and Sophia Popov (+8). Nelly Korda shot +11 to head home early, while her sister Jessica Korda advanced to the final two rounds at +4, tied for 36th.

US Womens 2021 R2

Pos.	Player	To Par	R1	R2	Total
1	Yuka Saso *	-6	69	67	136
2	Jeongeun Lee6	-5	70	67	137
T3	Megha Ganne (a) *	-4	67	71	138
T3	Megan Khang	-4	68	70	138
5	Shanshan Feng *	-3	69	70	139
T6	Inbee Park *	-2	71	69	140
T6	Mel Reid	-2	67	73	140
T6	Lexi Thompson *	-2	69	71	140
T9	Nasa Hataoka *	-1	72	69	141
T9	Ariya Jutanugarn	-1	71	70	141
T9	Maja Stark (a)	-1	71	70	141
T12	Marina Alex *	E	70	72	142
T12	Sarah Burnham *	E	76	66	142
T12	Danielle Kang	E	73	69	142
T12	Hyo Joo Kim	E	72	70	142
T16	Jennifer Kupcho	+1	70	73	143
T16	Wichanee Meechai	+1	70	73	143
T18	Austin Ernst	+2	70	74	144
T18	Mina Harigae	+2	71	73	144
T18	Gurleen Kaur (a)	+2	71	73	144
T18	In Kyung Kim	+2	74	70	144
T18	Sei Young Kim	+2	74	70	144
T18	Jin Young Ko	+2	70	74	144
T18	Alison Lee	+2	74	70	144
T18	Stacy Lewis *	+2	72	72	144
T18	Lucy Li *	+2	73	71	144
T18	Madelene Sagstrom *	+2	71	73	144
T28	Matilda Castren *	+3	74	71	145
T28	In Gee Chun *	+3	75	70	145
T28	Ally Ewing	+3	71	74	145
T28	Gaby Lopez *	+3	72	73	145
T28	Yealimi Noh *	+3	76	69	145
T28	Amy Olson	+3	73	72	145
T28	Emily Kristine Pedersen	+3	71	74	145
T28	Patty Tavatanakit *	+3	75	70	145
T36	Celine Boutier	+4	72	74	146
T36	Jenny Coleman *	+4	73	73	146
T36	Brooke M. Henderson *	+4	68	78	146
T36	Lydia Ko *	+4	71	75	146
T36	Jessica Korda	+4	72	74	146
T36	Minjee Lee	+4	73	73	146
T36	Xiyu Lin	+4	72	74	146
T36	Yu Liu	+4	74	72	146
T36	Maria Parra *	+4	72	74	146
T36	So Yeon Ryu	+4	74	72	146
T36	Lauren Stephenson	+4	70	76	146
T47	Pajaree Anannarukarn *	+5	76	71	147
T47	Na Yeon Choi	+5	75	72	147
T47	Rachel Heck (a)	+5	75	72	147
T47	Celine Herbin	+5	73	74	147
T47	Lee-Anne Pace *	+5	76	71	147
T47	Lizette Salas *	+5	72	75	147
T47	Jenny Shin	+5	72	75	147
T47	Luna Sobron Galmes	+5	71	76	147
T47	Jasmine Suwannapura *	+5	73	74	147
T47	Ayako Uehara	+5	76	71	147
T47	Amy Yang *	+5	74	73	147
T47	Angel Yin *	+5	68	79	147
T59	Brittany Altomare	+6	74	74	148
T59	Carlota Ciganda *	+6	72	76	148
T59	Hannah Green	+6	73	75	148
T59	Leonie Harm (a) *	+6	73	75	148
T59	Muni He *	+6	72	76	148
T59	Pernilla Lindberg *	+6	76	72	148
T59	Giulia Molinaro	+6	74	74	148
T59	Anna Nordqvist *	+6	75	73	148
CUT	Ashleigh Buhai	+7	74	75	149
CUT	Kristen Gillman	+7	72	77	149
CUT	Eun-Hee Ji	+7	75	74	149
CUT	Minami Katsu	+7	76	73	149
CUT	A Lim Kim	+7	79	70	149
CUT	Pornanong Phatlum	+7	72	77	149
CUT	Sarah Schmelzel	+7	72	77	149
CUT	Hinako Shibuno	+7	73	76	149
CUT	Tiffany Chan	+8	74	76	150
CUT	Jodi Ewart Shadoff	+8	77	73	150
CUT	Haylee Harford	+8	75	75	150
CUT	Moriya Jutanugarn	+8	78	72	150
CUT	Nanna Koerstz Madsen	+8	76	74	150
CUT	Karolin Lampert	+8	80	70	150
CUT	Isabella McCauley (a)	+8	80	70	150
CUT	Stephanie Meadow	+8	76	74	150
CUT	Sophia Popov	+8	76	74	150
CUT	Angela Stanford	+8	74	76	150
CUT	Paula Creamer	+9	75	76	151
CUT	Georgia Hall	+9	77	74	151
CUT	Christina Kim	+9	75	76	151
CUT	Brittany Lang	+9	75	76	151
CUT	Mirim Lee	+9	73	78	151
CUT	Da Yeon Lee	+9	76	75	151
CUT	Claire Choi (a)	+10	75	77	152
CUT	Cristie Kerr	+10	73	79	152
CUT	Aline Krauter (a)	+10	76	76	152
CUT	Emily Mahar (a)	+10	77	75	152
CUT	Momoka Miyake	+10	76	76	152
CUT	Azahara Munoz	+10	75	77	152
CUT	Sarah Jane Smith	+10	78	74	152
CUT	Alexandra Swayne (a)	+10	77	75	152
CUT	Kelly Tan	+10	79	73	152
CUT	Amari Avery (a)	+11	76	77	153
CUT	Amelia Garvey (a)	+11	74	79	153
CUT	Wei-Ling Hsu	+11	78	75	153
CUT	Charley Hull	+11	75	78	153
CUT	Kim Kaufman	+11	74	79	153
CUT	Gina Kim (a)	+11	76	77	153
CUT	Nelly Korda	+11	78	75	153
CUT	Jaclyn Laha (a)	+11	77	76	153
CUT	Rebecca Lee-Bentham	+11	76	77	153
CUT	Caroline Masson	+11	79	74	153
CUT	Kaitlyn Papp (a)	+11	76	77	153
CUT	Allie White	+11	75	78	153
CUT	Cheyenne Woods	+11	79	74	153
CUT	Ssu-Chia Cheng	+12	77	77	154
CUT	Tsai Ching Tseng (a)	+12	76	78	154
CUT	Hikari Kawamitsu	+12	73	81	154
CUT	Mi Hyang Lee	+12	75	79	154
CUT	Bohyun Park (a)	+12	76	78	154
CUT	Ana Peláez Triviño (a)	+12	76	78	154
CUT	Karoline Tuttle (a)	+12	76	78	154
CUT	Michelle Wie West	+12	74	80	154
CUT	Ruoning Yin (a)	+12	81	73	154
CUT	Ingrid Gutierrez Nunez	+13	78	77	155
CUT	Mi Jung Hur	+13	79	76	155
CUT	Elizabeth Szokol	+13	77	78	155
CUT	Britney Yada	+13	78	77	155
CUT	Jo-Hua Hung (a)	+14	76	80	156
CUT	Tsubasa Kajitani (a)	+14	77	79	156
CUT	Cheyenne Knight	+14	76	80	156
CUT	Kim Metraux	+14	80	76	156
CUT	Sung Hyun Park	+14	77	79	156
CUT	Jennifer Song	+14	78	78	156
CUT	Rose Zhang (a)	+14	76	80	156
CUT	Daniela Darquea	+15	78	79	157
CUT	Sarah Kemp	+15	78	79	157
CUT	Chihiro Kogure (a)	+15	79	78	157
CUT	Louise Stahle	+15	79	78	157
CUT	Addie Baggarly (a)	+16	81	77	158
CUT	Haley Moore	+16	81	77	158
CUT	Hee Young Park	+16	78	80	158
CUT	Linnea Strom	+16	79	79	158
CUT	Kathleen Scavo	+17	80	79	159
CUT	Natalie Srinivasan	+17	78	81	159
CUT	Emma Talley	+17	76	83	159
CUT	Chloe Kovelesky (a)	+20	81	81	162
CUT	Natsumi Nakanishi	+21	76	87	163
CUT	Monica Vaughn (a)	+21	79	84	163
CUT	Leigha Devine (a)	+22	86	78	164
CUT	Noemie Pare (a)	+22	80	84	164
CUT	Aneka Seumanutafa (a)	+22	84	80	164
CUT	Jensen Castle (a)	+23	86	79	165
CUT	Amanda Linner (a)	+24	85	81	166
CUT	Nicole Garcia	+25	80	87	167
CUT	Alyssa Lamoureux (a)	+25	84	83	167
CUT	Minori Nagano (a)	+25	80	87	167
CUT	Abbey Daniel (a)	+29	81	90	171
WD	Megan Osland	+19	90		90
* Player started on the back nine