Yesterday I mentioned that Lydia Ko and Jordan Spieth had similar scores after the primary rounds in their respective tournaments.
Today the difference inside the events -- and possibly in their mental states proper now -- is plainly obvious.
Jordan Spieth, languishing in a tie for one hundred and first location after Thursday's spherical of even par, roared again into contention Friday with a 7-underneath 64. Now he is T16, just 5 shots off the lead. TPC Deere Run is an area wherein birdies come to roost in bunches, and Jordan now sits at the identical rating that he had after 36 holes in both of the closing 2 years... Which incorporates the 12 months he won.
Things failed to pass so smoothly for Lydia Ko. The Kobra were given bitten by means of a US Open format that become gambling much more difficult notwithstanding the rains that came late Thursday. That's counter-intuitive, I recognize -- moist US Open guides need to be simpler to score on than dry courses considering tee balls don't necessarily locate the tough and the greens get hold of technique photographs higher.
But those veggies additionally bogged down drastically, and gamers truely couldn't agree with how tough they needed to hit putts. You may want to even listen Morgan Pressel speakme to herself after yet any other putt got here up brief, telling herself that she KNEW she needed to hit the ball harder!
The only gamers to honestly capitalize on the situation have been Amy Yang (pictured above), who sits at -7, and Stacy Lewis, T2 at -four. Yes, there are truly other gamers in the mix, however these are the simplest ones to shoot in the 60s on BOTH days -- sixty seven-66 for Yang, 69-sixty seven for Lewis. The route is not going to get any less complicated this weekend; the question is whether situations will allow the other gamers to make up ground or do the conditions choose Yang and Lewis going forward.
As for Lydia Ko, she is now 2 (T32) and seemingly struggling with her game. FOX mentioned a quite burdened Lydia inside the hours before the second spherical, having modified her habitual drastically and possibly throwing her rhythm off for the day. At any price, she's got her paintings reduce out for her, with such a lot of players beforehand of her.
It could be exciting to see how Jordan performs subsequent week while their positions are reversed and he faces major situations. But that is Lydia's third essential of the yr, and her document for the primary is not so desirable -- T51 at the Inspiration and a overlooked reduce on the Women's PGA. Jordan's played a bit better in the Masters and US Open.
There turned into a few communicate at the FOX broadcast that leads me to consider Lydia is beginning to experience the strain to win a primary. Apparently she made a observation some thing along the strains that if she did win one, as a minimum the constant questions could forestall. I consider it's more difficult to be a prodigy than most of us realise.
Since Jordan is now beyond that hassle, perhaps these two should meet and have a talk. After all, Annika's friendship with Tiger absolutely did not harm her game any!
In the meantime, perhaps the earlier tee time will lessen some of the tension on Lydia and just let her freewheel it a little today. The LPGA broadcast is on the regular FOX stations -- not FOXSports1 -- today at 2:30pm ET. Jordan, of course, will be on GC early and then on NBC. [CORRECTION: That should be CBS -- I got the Scottish Open coverage mixed up with the John Deere coverage.]
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