LOS ANGELES (AFP) – World number two Park Sung-hyun shook off a late bogey to close with back-to-back birdies Saturday and join Spain’s Carlota Ciganda atop the leaderboard of the LPGA NW Arkansas Championship.
South Korea’s Park, who captured her sixth LPGA title at the HSBC Women’s World Championship in Singapore in March and finished runner-up to Hannah Greene at the Women’s PGA Championship last week, fired an eight-under par 63 at Pinnacle Country Club in Rogers, Arkansas, for her share of the lead on 13-under par 129.
Ciganda fired a 66 and the leading duo had a two-stroke lead over a group of seven players that included overnight leader Park In-bee and world number one Ko Jin-young.
They were joined on 131 by fellow South Koreans Ko (66) and Kim Hyo-joo (64), along with Americans Danielle Kang (63) and Brittany Altomare (65), Ecuador’s Daniela Darquea (65) and Sweden’s Linnea Strom (65).
