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American Angela Stanford has soared to the top of the leaderboard with a flawless round in Hawaii, while Katherine Kirk moves into the top 20.
The second round of the LPGA LOTTE Championship was played in much calmer conditions and it showed with the scoring significantly lower than the opening round. It was the veteran American who jumped out of the box earlier on Thursday morning local time.
Stanford started off with two pars before she went on a birdie blitz, birding the next five holes, to go out in five under par 31. Another three consecutive birdies from the 11th to the 13th holes saw sign for eight-under-par 64 at the Ko Olina Golf Club.
Stanford sits alone at the top at eight-under, however she only holds a slender one shot lead over local favourite Michelle Wie, who carded a five-under-par 67. Sitting in third position and just two off the lead is another American Cristie Kerr (66), Rolex World No. 1 Inbee Park (69) and South Koreans So Yeon Ryu (70) and Hyo Joo Kim (70).
Queenslanders Katherine Kirk and Sarah Jane Smith were the only Australians to make the cut. Kirk posted a two-under-par 70, which included four birdies and two bogeys to be at one-under-par total and tied for 20th position.
Smith signed for a 71 to finish at four-over par and right on the cut number. Smith is tied for 67th position and hopefully will go low in the final two rounds.
The cut was made at four-over-par and 77 players will play for their share of the US$1.7 million on offer. Unfortunately Sarah Kemp missed one shot, while Lindsey Wright had a very disappointing second round of 79 to fall back down the leaderboard and finish outside the cut at six-over. Julia Boland (73) also finished at six-over, while Stacey Keating, who got a start, finished well back at 11-over.