AFP, San Francisco :
Philippine teenager Yuka Saso fired six birdies in a four-under par 67 on Friday to seize a one-shot lead over former champion Lee6 Jeong-eun at the halfway stage of the US Women’s Open.
Saso, 19 and a two-time winner on the Japan LPGA tour, rolled in a long birdie putt at her final hole, the par-three eighth on the imposing Lake Course at Olympic Club, to finish 36 holes at six-under par 136. She walked off the course with a two-shot lead, but Lee6, whose only LPGA tour title is her 2019 US Open triumph, stormed home with four of her five birdies on the back nine in a four-under 67 for 137.
The South Korean reeled off three straight birdies at 15, 16, and 17, but missed a 12-footer at the 18th for a share of the lead.
Saso is playing just her third major, but she has experience to draw on of contending on the LPGA tour. She held a two-shot lead through 36 holes at the Lotte Championship in April.
“Stay patient and enjoy,” she said of the lesson she’ll take into the weekend, along with the confidence of a strong performance on the challenging par-71 layout that has hosted five men’s US Opens but had never before hosted a women’s major.
“I hit good shots from the rough today and holed a couple putts,” she said.
She said the key to hitting out of the dense rough at Olympic was to not try to do too much. “First, if I go in the rough, my mindset is just to go for the fairway,” she said. “I mean, it’s really long and, like, sticky, so yeah, it’s really hard to get on (the green) from it.
