Korean Australian Minjee Lee looked unstoppable early on after she birdied four of the first six holes on Friday at the Lorena Ochoa Invitational.
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“There’s nothing different I’m going do on the golf course”, Lee said. “I’m going to stick to my golf and take it one shot at a time”.
Lee, the top amateur in the world before she turned professional previous year, posted a six-under 138 halfway total, with Americans Christina Kim (66) and Angela Stanford (70) and South Koreans Park In-bee (71) and Kim Sei-young (66) on five-under.
Park is playing her first tournament since withdrawing from last week’s Blue Bay event in Hainan Island, China because of a cyst on her left hand.
A member of Golf Australia’s rookie squad of elite, young professionals, the former Australian amateur champion made a two-putt birdie at the par-five 17th to grab the lead at Club de Golf Mexico.
“I was a little bit anxious about not practicing for a few days, but I had a good day today, especially the front nine”, Park said. Obviously, on the back nine, I could’ve shot a little bit better, but I have three more days to go, and I just got to work on my ball-striking.
She struggled with distance control in the high altitude. I felt really good about the putter today.
“It’s just nice to be back in contention and kind of be back where I should be”, Pettersen said.
In 2006, Lorena Ochoa swept the season ending awards for the first of two consecutive years, winning Player of the Year, Vare Trophy and the money title.
Sei Young Kim, also from South Korea, won the event two weeks ago in China for her third victory of the season.
Stanford is coming off playoff loss to Sun-Ju Ahn last week in the Asian Swing finale in Japan.
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She won the inaugural tournament in 2008 in Guadalajara.
