Stephanie Meadow just about made the cut at the JM Eagle LA Championship, while Australia's Grace Kim expanded her lead to four strokes as the tournament reached its midpoint in Los Angeles.
Antrim native Meadow carded a one-over 72 on Friday at Wilshire Country Club to match her opening round total and is on two over for the tournament, just inside the cut mark and 14 off the lead in a tie for 61st.
Meanwhile, Kim shot the best round of the day for the second consecutive round, carding a five-under-par 66 to go to 12 under, four shots better than second-placed Maja Stark. The Swede is at eight under following a 69 on Friday.
Defending champion Hannah Green of Australia (second-round 69) and Germany's Esther Henseleit (68) are tied for third at six under.
LEADERBOARD
Auston Kim (71) and Denmark's Emily Kristine Pedersen (67) share fifth place at five under. Tied for seventh at four under are Rose Zhang (69), Thailand's Chanettee Wannasaen (73) and South Koreans Haeran Ryu (72) and Sei Young Kim (73).
Grace Kim started her day on the back nine, and she bogeyed the par-3 12th hole. That was her final mistake of the day. She immediately rebounded with an eagle on the par-5 13th hole, then birdied the par-4 14th hole, and she added three more birdies on the front nine.
"I think majority of (the birdies) were more putting close to the pin," Grace Kim said.
"I did have one long putt that I holed, but other than that, yeah, just got to try and keep it close to the pins so then you have more of a chance of not having to bump across too many bumps."
Stark had a relatively steady day, making one birdie and one bogey on the front nine, then adding consecutive birdies at 12 and 13.
Green's wild round featured six birdies and four bogeys. She said of returning as the defending champion, "Everyone is coming up to me and (saying), 'Hey, champ, hey defending champ,' which is really nice. Obviously I don't want to put too much pressure on myself. The scores are not quite what I thought they were."
Henseleit charged into contention with two sets of back-to-back birdies on either side of her lone bogey.
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