Another Day, Same Park

Rested Angela Park Remains In First At Halfway Point

Southern Pines, N.C. – A 24-hour respite didn’t seem to bother Angela Park. In fact, the 18-year-old LPGA Tour rookie from Brazil seemed to relish the unexpected day off.

Thanks to several thunderstorms on Friday that suspended play, the scheduled afternoon wave of 78 competitors, which included first-round leader Park, never got onto Pine Needles for the second round of the 2007 U.S. Women’s Open.

No problem. On Saturday, a refreshed Park nearly duplicated her first-round 68 with a 2-under-par 69 for a 5-under 137 total and a two-stroke lead over fellow South American Julieta Granada (70-69), 20, of Paraguay, 27-year-old Amy Hung (70-69) of Chinese Taipei and 19-year-old Ji-Yai Shin (70-69) of Korea at the midway point of the championship.

Two late par saves Saturday helped Angela Park, during the second round, retain the lead. (John Mummert/USGA)

Only one other player is in red figures: 2007 Kraft Nabisco champion Morgan Pressel (71-70) of Boca Raton, Fla. The 2005 U.S. Women’s Amateur champion got it to three under before dropping two strokes on the way into the clubhouse.

World No. 1 Lorena Ochoa carded a second-consecutive 71 and stands five strokes off the pace along with 2002 U.S. Girls’ Junior champion In-Bee Park of Korea, Japan’s Shiho Oyama, Korea’s Shi Hyun Ahn and Scotland’s Catriona Matthew, who posted the lowest round of the championship so far, a 4-under 67.

Michelle Wie, who opened with an 82, withdrew after nine holes, citing a sore wrist.

Sixty-seven players made the cut of 6-over 148, with two-time U.S. Women’s Open champions Juli Inkster, Meg Mallon and Karrie Webb failing to qualify for the final 36 holes. Others failing to make the cut included 2006 U.S. Women’s Amateur champion Kimberly Kim and 2007 McDonald’s LPGA Championship winner Suzann Pettersen. Chrisina Kim three-putted the ninth hole (her 18th) to miss by one. Kim made the cut in 2001 at Pine Needles as a 17-year-old amateur.

Four amateurs did survive the cut, including 2007 U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links champion Mina Harigae, 17, of Monterey, Calif.

The third round was scheduled to begin approximately at 3:30 p.m. with the players going off in threesomes from the first and 10th tees.

"When they told us that it was canceled for the whole day, I was taking it as a positive affect on my game," said Park, "because then I knew I could rest up for the next day and get ready for it."

But if Park, who turned pro in 2006 just prior to graduating from high school in Torrance, Calif., goes on to win this championship, she might look back at holes eight and nine (her 17th and 18th of the round). She rolled in a 12-foot par put at eight and then after driving in the left rough at No. 9, she managed to save par again with a 22-foot bender.

"My caddie (Michael Hobbs) told me I spent the least amount of time reading that putt out of all the putts today," said Park, a semifinalist at the 2005 U.S. Women’s Amateur. "I didn’t know that. I just looked at it and said, ‘OK, it’s going to go left to right and right straight into the hole.’ And I hit it and it went in."

Should Park claim the trophy, she would be a second USGA open champion from South America, following Angel Cabrera’s triumph at the U.S. Open two weeks ago. Park definitely sees some similarities with the Argentine especially with their first names. The pronunciations are slightly different (the ‘g’ is not silent for Park).

"That would be weird," she said. "Now that I am standing in this position and having the opportunity to go for a win it’s amazing."

No player from Chinese Taipei has ever won a Women’s Open, although Candie Kung and Ya-Ni Tseng were victorious at the 2001 and ’04 U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links. Hung, who won 50 junior and amateur events before turning pro in 2003 (joined LPGA Tour in ’04), has only one top-10 finish in 12 LPGA events this season. She’s broke 70 just three times in 36 rounds, but the day off on Friday also seemed to be a major benefit. It definitely was therapeutic.

"I went to bed [Thursday night] at like nine o’clock and I sleep in to 11," said Hung, who missed the cut in the year’s first two majors. "That’s probably the funnest thing I have ever done."

Granada enjoyed collecting a $1 million first-place check last November for winning the ADT Championship. Like Park, she also is trying to carry the banner for South America. The 2004 U.S. Girls’ Junior champion closed her first nine with three consecutive birdies, then made seven pars before her lone hiccup of the day at 17. She hit 12-of-14 fairways and 14-of-18 greens.

"This is an awesome tournament and I’m playing really well, so to give myself a shot at it is very nice," said Granada, who also turned down a college scholarship to the University of Arizona to turn pro in 2006. "Hopefully, the weather will stay nice with us."

Granada acknowledged that people are watching back home in Paraguay.

"I got a couple of phone calls the first day," said Granada. "I’m sure they are paying attention. So maybe there’s two South American champions for the USGA this year."

Olé, Olé.

David Shefter is a USGA staff writer. E-mail him with questions or comments at dshefter@usga.org.