Round Two
By Jeff Babineau
BELMONT, Mich. – When Ally Ewing made double bogey on the 10th hole of the Meijer LPGA Classic for Simply Give on Thursday afternoon, she was 2 over par, with no birdies to show on a golf course that was giving up plenty. So much for Blythefield Country Club extending its warm and welcoming hug, a summer tradition in Michigan to rival Kid Rock and fresh-water fishing.
That’s OK. There isn’t much that knocks Ally Ewing down for very long. A late eagle would help her scrape out a respectable opening 70. On Friday, roughly 24 hours later, Ewing was talking about holding the lead, and entering the weekend chasing her fourth LPGA title. That’s how quickly golf can flip the script.
Ewing had made so many birdies at Blythefield on Friday that she lost count of them at one point, so she just shrugged her shoulders and kept making them. She birdied her first two holes and her last two holes, and sprinkled in some great golf between, shooting 9-under 63, the low round of the tournament. She even made eagle at the 466-yard eighth for the second consecutive day. Thursday, she hit driver and 8-iron to 3 feet; Friday, it was driver and 5-iron short of the green, then a holed chip. You have to love variety.
Ewing’s 63, which included only 24 putts, was one of 12 bogey-free rounds on the day.
“Honestly, at one point I wasn’t really sure what I was (under par), so I was just kind of focusing on each shot, each hole,” Ewing said. Her Friday play moved her from 33rd place at the Meijer all the way into a tie for the lead.
Ewing made seven birdies to go along with the eagle, taking advantage of good scoring conditions in the morning wave. Enough wind stuck around in the afternoon to keep other pursuers away, and Ewing and Australian Grace Kim (65) moved into the weekend sharing the lead. Both players are 11-under 133 through two rounds, two shots better than Denmark’s Nanna Koertz Madsen (64) and Korea’s Narin An (68).
Thirteen other players will enter the final two rounds within four shots of the lead. That group includes two-time Meijer champion Brooke Henderson (69) and 2023 U.S. Women’s Open champion Allisen Corpuz (68), both of whom are at 8-under 136, as well as 19-year-old Alexa Pano, who shot 7-under 65, the low round of Friday’s afternoon wave. Pano will start Saturday four shots behind the leaders.
Joining the group of golfers headed to weekend play were past champion Lexi Thompson (68), who won the Meijer in 2015 and is 120 under par in her long career at Blythefield; Lilia Vu (70), the World No. 2, who is making her first start since March after being sidelined by recurring back injuries; and first-round leader Alison Lee, who shot 72 on Friday.
Missing the cut by a shot was World No. 1 Nelly Korda, who simply dug herself too deep a hole Thursday to escape. Korda, 25, did her best to rebound from an opening 76, which marked her worst round at Blythefield by four shots. She birdied four of her first five holes to start the second round, but her 67 on Friday came up one shot short.
“Didn’t play too bad,” said Korda, who has now missed the cut in consecutive starts after missing the weekend at the U.S. Women’s Open in Pennsylvania two weeks ago. “Just a tough week.”
Ewing, 31, still is carrying the momentum earned from her third-place finish at the U.S. Women’s Open, where she tried to come from behind by posting a good early closing round on Sunday, when she shot 66. Her tie for third was her best finish since tying for fourth in the season-opening Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions in Orlando.
“I think anytime you get a good finish in any tournament, much less a major, you just see good golf for four days, (it) definitely helps your confidence when you carry it over,” Ewing said.
“The golf ball doesn’t know what I did last week – but it’s still important to attack it, but also have confidence with it.”
Kim is only 23, and is seeking her second LPGA victory after winning early in the 2023 season, winning the LOTTE Championship in Hawaii. Late in May, she put herself in great position to win her second title at the JM Eagle LA Championship presented by Plastpro, starting 64-66 at Los Angeles’ Wilshire Country Club. But the pressure of the lead, coupled with a difficult golf course, got to her on the weekend. Kim shot 76-77 and slid to a tie for 25th.
She learned from the experience, though. Always learning.
“Just really trusting my game,” she said after Friday’s 65. She made six birdies, took a step back with a bogey at the difficult par-4 17th, and bounced back with an eagle-3 at the par-5 18th. It was the perfect response to her only bogey of the round.
Into the wind on 18 – the complete opposite wind from Thursday – Kim hit a drive that trickled into the rough. The ball was sitting up, and she knew that when she struck it the ball was likely to “knuckle” on her, so she made sure to reach for an extra club.
“I hit 5-wood, and yeah, miraculously, went 8, 9 feet by left, so made the putt,” Kim said. “The greens are rolling pure, so just take your chances that way.”
Kim played in the group directly behind Korda, Henderson and defending champion Leona Maguire, which gave her an incredible front-row seat to watching the crowds that a No. 1 player such as Korda attracts. It was a valuable scene for the young Aussie to witness.
“Just seeing all those people come out, support all the girls out here, is just incredible, and a great experience for us to make it more enjoyable,” Kim said. “Hopefully, they’re enjoying it as much as we are … it’s just spectacular.”
Eighty-one players survived the cut (low 65 and ties) on Friday and will move on to the weekend at Blythefield. The cut fell at 2-under 142. Friday’s scoring average: 71.09.
In addition to Korda, the cut claimed several players inside the top 40 in the CME Race to the Globe standings, including Minjee Lee (78); 2024 LPGA winner Bailey Tardy (71); Janet Lin (72); and Linnea Strom. Strom was hotter than any other player coming in, having won the ShopRite last Sunday with a final round of 60. On Friday at Blythefield, she shot 75, missing the cut by three.
Wind, mental game key factors for Australia’s Grace Kim; shoots 65 to share lead
By: Annie Watson
BELMONT, Mich. – Sydney native Grace Kim, whose 2024 campaign so far has been a whirlwind, finished the second round of the Meijer LPGA Classic with a clear mind and a tie for the lead.
The 23-year-old, who hasn’t placed above T25 this season and has missed the cut in her last two starts, shot a 65 in the drier conditions of the Friday morning wave. Kim heads into the weekend at 11-under, tied with veteran golfer Ally Ewing.
Kim admits that she took her first round, a 4-under 68, for granted. Nonetheless, the Aussie goes into Saturday with a changed perspective.
“I think I was the second lowest scorer of the day yesterday in the afternoon, and that says a lot of how tough the conditions were,” she said.
Upon recognizing just how strong she has played the greens in the first half of this year’s Meijer LPGA Classic, said Kim, “You just gotta make sure you stump them. The greens are rolling pure, so just take chances that way.”
Coming into the second round, Kim could tell a difference in the winds, and capitalized by finishing the round with an eagle on the par-5 18th.
“I hit [my] driver, and I guess the wind was the complete opposite to yesterday, how we were playing in the afternoon,” said Kim. “[And] it just crept into the rough through the fairway.”
A second shot with her 5-wood brought her within 10 feet of the pin, making room for her eagle on the final hole of the morning round.
Kim is eyeing her second win in two years on the LPGA Tour, her first being last year’s LOTTE Championship in Kapolei, Hawaii. She is aware of the nerves and excitement that comes with being in contention, especially with a win already under her belt. She knows “the nerves will be there” and that she is bound to think about a packed weekend leaderboard.
What sets her up for performing under that pressure is “the way you handle it, the way you pull through. You just got to accept that and focus on other things.
“The adrenaline is rushing, but [I’m] making sure that I use that to hit the bombs, the drives off the tee.”
Friday News and Notes
By Jeff Babineau
Nelly’s rally falls a little short
After an opening 76, World No. 1 Nelly Korda needed a giant effort to sneak back inside the cutline on Friday, trying to avoid missing two consecutive cuts. She did not fully get there, but saw some positive things in her game in a second-round 67.
Friday, she got off to the start she had to have. Teeing off on 10, she made birdies on four of her first five holes. Her lone bogey came at 17, a par 4, where she three-putted, stopping her momentum.
A day after using 36 putts, Korda had 29. She made some nice putts early to get the round started off, and she liked how she drove the ball. Her next start will be next week’s KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Sahalee. The KPMG was played there in 2016 (Brooke Henderson won), but Korda never has seen it.
Korda captured the KPMG, her first major, in 2021, on the heels of winning at Meijer.
“I’m very pleased with the way I struck the ball today off the tee, something I’ve been struggling with this year,” Korda said. “This was by far the best I’ve hit it off the tee, so a little bit of positivity going into KPMG.”
Korda, 25, has won seven times in 2024, winning five straight, and six of seven as she headed into last month’s U.S. Women’s Open. The last time she missed more than two cuts in a season was 2017, when she missed four.
Juli Inkster sighting at Meijer
Juli Inkster stopped by the Meijer LPGA Classic for Simply Give, spending a few days in Michigan as a guest of tournament director Cathy Cooper to fulfill a few tournament obligations to help mark the 10th anniversary of the event.
Inkster, 63, is a seven-time major champion winding down a career that already has landed her in the World Golf Hall of Fame. Last week in Dublin, Ohio, she was named 2024 Honoree (with Tom Weiskopf) at the Memorial presented by Workday, named by the Captains Club at Muirfield. The biggest thrill for Inkster this week? It might have been the fact she didn’t have to check golf clubs on the plane when she flew in.
“I did it for so many years, it’s a grind,” Inkster said. “I’m super-happy where I am right now. I play a little bit, got my Inkster Award presented by Workday (given to the year’s top college senior, which this year went to LSU’s Ingrid Lingblad), doing maybe a little announcing, doing some corporate stuff … It’s been great.”
Inkster still likes to practice when at home in California. She’ll show up at the range, maybe take the family dog with her, plug her earphones in and hit balls for 90 minutes. “It’s my church,” she said.
She does have one tournament, possibly two, on the upcoming summer schedule. Inkster, a former U.S. Women’s Open champion, is scheduled to play in the U.S. Senior Women’s Open at Fox Chapel Golf Club in Pittsburgh Aug. 1-4. Of course, being the competitor she is, she doesn’t want to show up too rusty, so she is considering adding the LPGA’s CPKC Women’s Open in Canada July 25-28.
And as if Inkster doesn’t have enough going on, she has a big life event on the calendar, too: She will become a grandmother this fall. Daughter Haley is expecting a son. That’s right up her alley.
What sort of grandmother will she be? “The ‘fun’ one,” Inkster said, laughing.
Ewing’s pot of gold
On the LPGA – or anywhere in golf, realistically – players are always playing for something, trying to achieve some goal. It might be to get into the top 100, or to make a Solheim Cup team. There are lots of players this summer trying to qualify or the upcoming Olympic Games in Paris.
Ally Ewing took a while to answer the question before her. What is she playing for this summer?
“I’ve made a Solheim (in 2023) and definitely don’t want to miss one ever again in my career, so I want to be a part of a Solheim and especially winning Solheim team,” said Ewing, the co-leader of the Meijer LPGA at 11-under 133 as the tournament heads to the weekend.
“But I think most of all, you know, I tee it up each week with just a lot of gratitude to be out here playing. I just think you never know what tomorrow has or is going to bring, so I guess I’m just chasing each day to enjoy it and to be my best, and hope that that gives me a chance to make a putt on the last hole to win a golf tournament. Regardless, I’m going to enjoy each day.”
| LEADERBOARD | ||
| Ally Ewing | -11 | 70-63 |
| Grace Kim | -11 | 68-65 |
| Nanna Koerstz Madsen | -9 | 71-64 |
| Narin An | -9 | 67-68 |
| Jin Hee Im | -8 | 71-65 |
| Allisen Corpuz | -8 | 68-68 |
| Jing Yan | -8 | 68-68 |
| Brooke Henderson | -8 | 67-69 |
ABOUT THE LEADERS
Rolex Rankings No. 24, Ally Ewing
- She hit 11 of 13 fairways and 14 of 18 greens, with 24 putts
- She has gone bogey-free through 26 holes, after a double bogey on No. 1 on Thursday (her 10th hole)
- She’s made an eagle on No. 8 each day so far this week
- Her second-round 63 ties her career-low 18-hole score
- She’s recorded a 63 twice before, at the 2019 Thornberry Creek LPGA Classic (T15) and the 2021 Women’s Scottish Open (6)
- This is her second bogey-free round in her last three completed rounds on Tour, after going bogey-free on the final day of the U.S. Women’s Open presented by Ally
- She carded a 4-under 66 on Sunday at Lancaster Country Club to finish in a tie for third
- Her 133 ties her career-best 36-hole score, and is her best on Tour since the 2022 ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge at Pelican
- She ultimately finished in a tie for seventh
- She has now recorded a 133 a total of seven times, including this week at the Meijer LPGA Classic
- This is the second time she has opened with two rounds in the 60s this season, and the first time since the Ford Championship presented by KCC (69-67)
- This is her third time holding the 36-hole lead/co-lead on the LPGA Tour
- She last slept on the 36-hole lead at the 2023 AIG Women’s Open where she ultimately finished T6
- She also held the 36-hole lead in her first Tour victory at the 2020 LPGA Drive On Championship at Reynolds Lake Oconee
- This is Ewing’s fourth appearance at the Meijer LPGA Classic
- She’s earned two top-10 finishes in her three previous appearances (2023 – T8, 2021 – T6)
- This is her 10th start in the 2024 Tour season
- She’s made every cut, and has earned two top-five finishes (T4, Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions; T3, U.S. Women’s Open)
- Her T3 at the USWO is her career-best finish in any major championship in 38 career major starts
- This is her ninth season on the LPGA Tour
- She’s a three-time winner on Tour, with her last victory earned at the 2022 Kroger Queen City Championship
- She’s a three-time U.S. Solheim Cup member (2019, 2021, 2023)
- She currently ranks fifth on the U.S. Solheim Cup Team Points List
- Her husband, Charlie, coaches the women’s golf team at Mississippi State
- She has been a volunteer assistant coach for the Bulldogs since 2021
Rolex Rankings No. 86, Grace Kim
- Kim hit 11 of 13 fairways and 16 of 18 greens, with 28 putts
- She made six birdies, an eagle and one bogey on Friday
- Kim’s two-day score of 133 is the second-best 36-hole score of her career and of her 2024 Tour season
- She posted a career-best 36-hole score of 130 earlier this year at the JM Eagle LA Championship presented by Plastpro
- Her second-round 65 is her second-lowest 18-hole score of the 2024 season
- The 65 also ties the second-lowest round of her career
- She shot 65 four times in 2023
- Her career-low 18-hole score is a 64, which she most recently shot at the 2024 JM Eagle LA Championship
- The 65 also ties the second-lowest round of her career
- Kim opened the Meijer LPGA Classic with a 4-under 68
- This is her third time opening with rounds in the 60s this season following the JM Eagle LA Championship and the Ford Championship presented by KCC
- This is Kim’s second 36-hole lead/co-lead on Tour
- She also held the 36-hole lead at the JM Eagle LA Championship, where she ultimately finished T25
- This is her second appearance in the Meijer LPGA Classic
- She finished T20 in 2023, her rookie season
- This is her 12th event of the 2024 LPGA Tour season
- She’s made six cuts with season-best results of T25 at the JM Eagle LA Championship and the HSBC Women’s World Championship
- Her last top-10 finish on Tour was a tie for 10th at the 2023 Cognizant Founders Cup
- This is her second season on the LPGA Tour
- She became a Rolex First-Time Winner at the 2023 LOTTE Championship as a rookie
- She represented Australia at the 2023 Hanwha LIFEPLUS International Crown
- She finished fifth on the Epson Tour’s 2022 Race for the Card to first earn LPGA Membership
- Prior to becoming an LPGA Tour rookie, she won on the Epson Tour at the 2022 IOA Golf Classic
THINGS TO KNOW
- 81 players made the cut at -2
- Of the 15 players currently T10 or better, seven are looking to become the second-straight Rolex First-Time Winner of the season
- Nanna Koerstz Madsen shot an 8-under 64 to jump from T49 to T3 heading into the weekend (-9)
- Her 64 is her lowest round on Tour since the second round of her win at the 2022 Honda LPGA Thailand (64)
- Her career-low is a 63 (2018 Thornberry Creek LPGA Classic, R3)
- Her previous-low 18-hole score of 2024 was a 66, last recorded at the Mizuho Americas Open (R2)
- She is one of five players to post a 65 or better in the second round
- This is Koerstz Madsen’s third appearance in the Meijer LPGA Classic
- She last appeared in the event in 2019, where she finished T61; she missed the cut in 2018
- Her 64 is her second round in the 60s in any appearance at the Meijer LPGA Classic
- Her 133 is her lowest 36-hole score on Tour since the 2022 JTBC Classic, where she ultimately finished second after losing in a playoff to Atthaya Thitikul
- She won the Honda LPGA Thailand the event before, where she posted her career-best 36-hole score (129)
- Her 64 is her lowest round on Tour since the second round of her win at the 2022 Honda LPGA Thailand (64)
- Narin An tied Koerstz Madsen’s total (-9, T3) in the afternoon wave after a 4-under 68
- An is coming off a T6 finish at the ShopRite LPGA Classic, her second top-10 finish of the 2024 Tour season
- She is playing in her 65th total start on Tour since 2020
- This is her second start in the Meijer LPGA Classic
- She finished in a tie for 20th in 2023 (70-71-70-66)
- This is the first time since the 2023 TOTO Japan Classic that Narin has opened with back-to-back rounds in the 60s
- Heading into the Meijer LPGA Classic, An ranked seventh on Tour in strokes gained tee-to-green (+1.32) and approach (+0.96)
- Five players are tied for fifth at -8 following the second round
- LPGA Tour rookie Jin Hee Im shot a bogey-free 7-under 65 on Friday
- She is one of 12 players to go bogey free in the second round
- Im is currently second in the Louise Suggs Rolex Rookie if the Year race behind Gabriela Ruffels
- She has had a solid 2024 season, with two top-10 finishes and two additional top-20 results
- Jing Yan shot twin 68’s on Thursday and Friday to sit in a tie for fifth
- Yan is the only player in the field who has not made a single bogey through 36 holes at the Meijer LPGA Classic
- Her two-day total of 136 is the lowest of her 2024 Tour season
- This is her fourth made cut in six starts this season
- Brooke Henderson will see the weekend at the Meijer LPGA Classic for the seventh time in her career (T3, -8)
- Her 69 is her 19th round in the 60s this season
- That is the third-most currently on the LPGA Tour, behind just Ayaka Furue (24) and Nelly Korda (21)
- The Friday 69 is also her 19th round in the 60s in her 28th completed round at the Meijer LPGA Classic
- She is now 85-under par in Grand Rapids since 2016
- Her 69 is her 19th round in the 60s this season
- Rolex Rankings No. 305 Lauren Hartlage is playing her eighth event of the 2024 Tour season
- Hartlage’s career-best finish on the LPGA Tour is a tie for sixth (2023 LOTTE Championship)
- Her 136 ties her career-low 36-hole score, last set at the 2023 Portland Classic
- Allisen Corpuz is making her third appearance in the Meijer LPGA Classic (T3, 08)
- Her past results: 2022 – 11, 2023 – T32
- Corpuz is coming off two-straight missed cuts on Tour (Mizuho Americas Open, U.S. Women’s Open)
- Her first 68 on Thursday was her first round in the 60s on Tour since March (R1 67, Ford Championship presented by KCC)
- This is her first time opening with two straight rounds in the 60s since the 2023 CME Group Tour Championship (69-69)
- LPGA Tour rookie Jin Hee Im shot a bogey-free 7-under 65 on Friday
- Lexi Thompson’s 4-under 68 vaulted her safely above the cutline at the Meijer LPGA Classic (T25, -5)
- This is Thompson’s first made-cut since March, when she finished T3 at the Ford Championship presented by KCC
- She missed the cut at The Chevron Championship, Cognizant Founders Cup, Mizuho Americas Open and the U.S. Women’s Open
- Her 68 is also her first round in the 60s since the final round of the Ford Championship
- She posted four-straight rounds in the 60s at that event
- This is Thompson’s ninth time making the cut in now 10 appearances in the Meijer LPGA Classic
- She has posted six top-10 finishes in this event, including a win in 2015
- This is Thompson’s first made-cut since March, when she finished T3 at the Ford Championship presented by KCC
- Rolex Rankings No. 1 Nelly Korda missed her second-straight cut on the LPGA Tour
- The 2021 Meijer LPGA Classic champion shot 76-67 to miss the cut by one shot
- This is the first time she’s missed two straight cuts in starts made since the 2023 Cognizant Founders Cup and KPMG Women’s PGA Championship
- It is only the 19th missed cut of her Tour career in her 141st total start, dating back to 2013
- It’s her first missed cut in now six starts in the Meijer LPGA Classic
- Other notables to miss the cut are major champions Stacy Lewis (77-69) and Minjee Lee (72-78)
- All three sponsor invites – Georgia Oboh, Katie Lu and Brittany Lang – also will miss the weekend
QUOTABLES
Grace Kim (T1, -11) on seeing the fan support on Friday:
“I was in the group behind Nelly, and just to see the amount of people that were out, even yesterday, I think that was a big thing that really just stood out to me last year, just how many people there were out just even on a pro-am day and the Thursday. Just seeing all those people come out, support all the girls out here is just incredible and a great experience for us to make it more enjoyable. Hopefully they’re enjoying it as much as we are. Yeah, it’s just spectacular.”
Ally Ewing (T1, -11) on if she’s chasing anything any time she tees it up on Tour:
“I’ve made a Solheim and definitely don’t want to miss one ever again in my career, so I want to be a part of a Solheim and especially winning Solheim team. But I think most of all, you know, I tee it up each week with just a lot of gratitude to be out here playing. I just think you never know what tomorrow has or is going to bring, so I guess I’m just chasing each day to enjoy it and to be my best, and hope that that gives me a chance to make a putt on the last hole to win a golf tournament. Regardless I’m going to enjoy each day.”
Lexi Thompson (T25, -5) on why she enjoys returning to the Meijer LPGA Classic each year:
“I think just everything honestly. The atmosphere of this event and the way the tournament gives back with Simply Give, it’s nothing but great things. So many people come out to support us this week.
I think all of us players would say this is one of our best events on our schedule. I just enjoy coming back to Grand Rapids. What is there not to enjoy right now?
Brooke Henderson (T5, -8) on what to expect of Blythefield Country Club come Saturday:
“This course can always play really exciting on the weekend. There is a lot of holes that you can get there in two. They will move some tees around. I am expecting they’ll probably put the par-3, No. 13, way back, and it’s a really long shot. So definitely going to be a couple changes I assume. Like I said, this can be a really fun golf course, especially on the weekend, lots of low scores. I think it’s going to be really exciting finish.”