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 Her next challenge is keeping her eyes off the prize.
The season-ending Titleholders does not have richest purse on the
LPGA Tour, it just pays the best. To put more intrigue into its
final event, the winner gets $700,000. To put that in context, it
would be double what Gal has made this year, and it would amount to
about one-third of her career earnings.
All because of one week.
So when she was asked Friday noon about ignoring such a big prize at
stake this weekend, Gal smiled.
"It's easier for people to say, 'I don't care about the money, I
only want to play well.' But they don't mean it, right?" she said.
"I'm still going to say it. I'm not out here to play for money. I'm
out here to play with heart and to inspire others. It's a huge
purse. But at the end of the day, when you win a tournament, you're
happy about fighting and overcoming fear."
Gal made three birdies on the back nine — bringing her total to nine
birdies on the inward half of Tiburon for the week — for a 3-under
69. That put the 28-year-old German at 11-under 133, three shots
clear of former Kraft Nabisco champion Sun Young Yoo at the halfway
point of this tournament.
Gal stayed in the lead most of the day, and one last birdie
stretched her lead. She would expect to make birdie on the 17th, the
shortest of the par 5s. Just not this way. She hooked her tee shot
into the trees and wasn't sure she could find it.
"Happy to find my ball," she said. "Had a swing — very happy. Had an
8-iron and thought, 'Let's go for the pin,' and almost holed it out.
Made the putt (from 15 feet). All very simple Never in doubt."
Gal has spent much of the year working on a shorter swing and
hitting a variety of shapes and trajectories, and that was put to
good use in the blustery conditions. And the fact she opened with a
64 didn't hurt.
"My advantage was yesterday," she said. "Shooting 8-under was big.
Today it was hard for everybody to catch up. That's what gave me
that three-shot lead."
The degree of difficulty was best measured by what Yoo considered
her best shot of the round — a 6-iron on the 18th hole that didn't
even hit the green. "I'm very pleased with how I played," Yoo said.
"I recovered very well."
[to top of second column] |
Lydia Ko, the 16-year-old from New Zealand making her pro debut,
played her final 10 holes without a birdie and finished at 71,
leaving her nine shots behind.
"I thought I played much better today than yesterday, but the
score was the same," Ko said. "I left a couple of my putts short
just in front of the hole. Then when I got my speed right, the
direction was wrong, so that was kind of frustrating."
Cristie Kerr had to fight plenty hard to get another 69 and lead
the group at 6-under 138, five shots behind. Kerr thought she
took take a 6-iron through a gap in the trees on the par-5
opening hole, and instead knocked it into the water. She had to
drop in pine straw, and sent her fifth shot over the green. Her
chip hit the pin, allowing her to tap in for a double bogey.
What followed was a "horrendous" shot at the third (bogey) and a
"horrible" shot on the fifth into a bunker.
But she saved par, and that changed her thinking.
"I wasn't going to let this tournament go down the toilet," she
said.
Kerr then ran off three straight birdies, knocked in a 15-foot
birdie putt on the 12th, and then holed an 80-foot putt for
eagle on the 17th that put her back in the mix.
"On 17, I mean I was just due. I don't know how to describe it
any other way than that," she said.
Morgan Pressel had a 67, the low score of the second round. Four
players failed to break 80.
Inbee Park was within a shot of the lead early in the round,
reaching 7 under, until she fell back to a 72 and was seven
shots behind. Park headed off to rehearse her speech one last
time before accepting LPGA player of the year at the awards
dinner Friday night. Most players are nervous to stand before a
big room for such a big moment.
"I've had a lot more pressure," Park said with a smile, a
reference to going after a fourth straight major earlier this
year at St. Andrews.
Stacey Lewis (73) and Suzann Pettersen (72) were in the group at
even-par 144, significant only as it relates to the Vare Trophy
for the lowest scoring average. Pettersen would have to finish
nine shots higher than the American to win the award.
[Associated
Press; DOUG FERGUSON, AP Golf Writer]
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