Leona Maguire leads the Meijer LPGA Classic

LPGA Tour rookie Leona Maguire closed with three birdies and an eagle over her final six holes to shoot an eight-under-par 64 in the second round of the Meijer Classic for Simply Give and take a three shot lead into the weekend at Blythefield Country Club.

“I knew there were some low ones out there this morning. When I looked at the leaderboard before I went out, I had gone from first to 15th I think, so I knew I had to start picking up some ground early and get some birdies on the board,” said Maguire, who played her opening (the back) nine in bogey-free 31 fashion.
“You know you have to go low. There is not really time to look around or even look behind. It’s sort of keep your foot down and keep going, make as many birdies as you can.”
Despite consecutive bogeys at the 1st and 2nd as she made the turn, Maguire rebounded to secure the first outright 36-hole advantage of her career.
“You can’t really protect a lead. You can’t just try to make pars. You have to sort of go for everything and hit a lot of fairways out here,” Maguire said.
“It’s tough when you get in the rough. I knew all about that on [Nos.] 1 and 2. Lot of fairways, lot of greens, and hopefully I can keep the putter hot this weekend.”

Su Oh sits alone in second at twelve-under overall, following a bogey-free, seven-under 65. In her four previous Meijer LPGA Classic starts, she has secured three top-15 finishes, including a pair of top-five performances.
“It [Blythefield] has been quite nice to me. I hope it stays that way this weekend. They moved a couple tee boxes up and the par-5s are gettable. I set myself up in the right places to have good chances,” said Oh.
“I only missed two greens [in regulation]. Actually holed a bomb on No. 2 I think, like 60 feet. I was like, ‘Oh, here comes a bogey,’ but it went in to my surprise. Other than that, no hiccups. I guess the last one I had a six-foot putt to make par. That was about it. Tap-in pars, which is lovely.”
Another second-round 65 came from Lindy Duncan, who will round out Saturday’s final grouping. The Duke University alumna is eleven-under overall.

Five players sit tied for fourth at ten-under, including Americans Mina Harigae, Brittany Altomare, Lizette Salas and Nelly Korda, all of which carded a 66 on Friday and Anna Nordqvist of Sweden, who shot 67.
“I ended up getting off to a good start, made a putt from the fringe on the first hole,” said Nordqvist, an eight-time LPGA champion.
“Started finding a rhythm, hit a lot of good puts and ended up making a few. At the turn, started to get really windy, so I don’t know if I just focused a little more or what. The last six or seven holes, I felt really good about my game and I’ve had good speed [on my putts] this week.”

Seven players are one shot further back on nine-under-par overall and tied for ninth, including Perrine Delacour, who matched Maguire’s low round of the tournament so far of eight-under thanks to ten birdies in her round.
Charley Hull of England went backwards on the leaderboard after a two-under 70 which left her also in the group on nine-under.
Georgia Hall is two shots back from Hull on seven-under following her round of 69

Seventy-two players made the cut at three-under and due to the threat of inclement weather in the greater Grand Rapids area tomorrow, the third round will feature split-tee action and groups of three beginning at 7:30 a.m. ET.

Two-time Meijer LPGA Classic and defending champion Brooke Henderson went 5-under today to get to two-under but will not play the weekend for the first time in five starts at Blythefield Country Club.