NORTH LAS VEGAS, NV — Anna Nordqvist was among the 11 players to win matches for the second day in a row, and only the three-time Swedish major champion has had to work longer in the Bank of Hope LPGA Match Play.
Nordqvist took her second match with all 18 holes on Thursday before lapping a 1 win over Lauren Coughlin. Nordqvist was never behind, but saw a four-round lead after paring eight holes back to 1 after the 13th.
They halved the final five holes, leaving Nordqvist in a good – but still insecure – position to win her block and advance to the knockout rounds at Shadow Creek weekend.
Day two of group play round robin was all about survival, and 16 players from the field of 64 were already mathematically eliminated. Xiyu “Janet” Lin was the only top seed in her block to be eliminated, losing another match, this time to Bagari Annanarukarn.
The tournament attracted only two top 10 players in the women’s world rankings, and both suffered setbacks in the second round.
Albany Valenzuela, runner-up in the US Women’s Amateur four years ago, won four holes in a five-hole stretch around the round to unseat top seed Lilia Vu and winner of the LPGA’s first major championship of the year at the Chevron Championship. .
Valenzuela (2-0) takes on Lauren Hartlage on Friday for a chance to advance. Hartlag is the lowest-ranked player in the tournament who lost both games before they reached the 17th hole.
“I’m very happy to win,” Valenzuela said. “I knew this was going to be a very tough match. Lilia is without a doubt one of the best players in the world and she made me work for the points. She definitely left some punches, and she did too, so we kind of fought ‘until the end’.”
Brooke Henderson won three holes in a row to take a 1 lead within the turn, only for the Canadian to make five bogeys the rest of the way and lose, 1, to Sophia Schubert. Henderson had an 8-foot birdie putt on the 18th to halve the match, and missed the putt to the right of the hole by several inches.
The best player from each of the 16 groups advances to the weekend.
Sweden’s Maya Stark built a huge lead for the second match in a row and then had to hold on to defeat Yu Liu to take her record to 2-0. Another young Swedish star, Lynn Grant, went 18 holes for the second day in a row. She halved her match on Wednesday and then had a wild match against Matilda Kastrine.
Grant was 3 down after four holes. She rallied to win by three straight holes before the turn. None of the last 6 holes were halved, and Grant did enough to win 2.
“I just had the mindset that it’s a tough golf course, so anything can happen on any hole,” Grant said. “You just have to keep hitting the fairways and trying to hit those greens. More often than not you win a hole on par because it’s hard.”
Angel Yin unexpectedly won. She was in pole position ahead of Esther Henselet of Germany playing round 3 in 17th place. Yen hit over the green on a wooded bank, about 10 feet from the surface of the fetch. Henseleit had 12 bird feet. Yin used her racket to punch the ball along the thick grass, on the green to about 5 feet. Henselet missed her birdie and Yin stayed in the match.
On the 18th, Yin tripped along the steady fairway and hit a 10-foot wedge, making a birdie putt to earn a par. She’ll play Ally Ewing, who won two games without having to play the 17th hole on any given day.