After 36 holes, one person sits atop the Epson Tour Championship leaderboard. Jaravee Boonchant fired a bogey free, 8-under par second round to take the solo lead by one stroke at 13-under.
“I'm pretty happy with how I played today and yesterday,” said Boonchant. “I guess today I was more conservative from the tee box, with the wind starting to pick up compared to yesterday. But with the greens being pretty soft, I was able to be more aggressive to the pin.”
Boonchant traveled from Korea to Daytona Beach earlier this week after competing in the Hana Financial Group Championship last week. The Thai lowered her expectations knowing jet lag would be a factor in her first few rounds. Luckily, she exceeded those expectations.
“I’m just excited to play the weekend,” said Boonchant. “I'm just going to try to focus on my own game and just keep doing what I've been doing. Hopefully I get a good result this week.”
Close behind Boonchant, tied for second at 12-under, were Bailey Tardy and Hyo Joon Jang. Tardy carded five birdies and a lone eagle on the day. The Georgia native has been in contention for the past few weeks and eagerly awaits her time in the spotlight.
“It's easy to focus on the negatives from the last two weeks, being in the final group and not winning,” said Tardy. “I’m just kind of taking the positives and what I did good each day and just taking baby steps.
Those weren't my tournaments to win, so I just keeping that in the back of my mind and hope I come out on top this week.”
Jang stuck to her gameplan for the week, go low and do the same thing as yesterday. The Korean shot 6-under par, the same as her first round. On Friday’s second round, however, Jang went bogey-free.
“I’m excited for sure, but I want to be more calmed down because it's a four day event,” said Jang. “There’s way more opportunity in a new day, so I will stay low and then do the same thing as today. I will just try to be calm.”
Rounding out the top five were four players at 11 under. Julie Amie, Sophie Hausmann, Amelia Garvey and Linnea Ström sit just two strokes behind Boonchant with 36 holes remaining. Amie recorded the lowest round of the day with a bogey-free 9-under. Hausmann and Garvey also went bogey-free, signing for scores of 7-under and 6-under par respectively. Ström carded six birdies on the day, four of which were consecutive.
A total of 63 players made the cut at 4-under, including former Epson Tour Championship winners Laura Wearn (-8) and Daniela Iacobelli (-8).
QUICK QUOTES
Gina Kim (-10, T8) on finishing her round with five birdies in six holes:
“It feels great because obviously my patience paid off and I saw some results. Honestly, at the beginning of the round I was hitting great shots, I had a solid game, but just didn't see anything dropping. So it feels really nice to finally get something out and squeeze something out right at the end.”
Julie Aime (-11, T4) on a 9-under, bogey-free second round:
“Honestly, I was impressed with how calm I stayed. It was my first week without a caddie, so I kind of had to focus on my routine. It was just a different rhythm, so I think that helped me stay in my bubble. I was like, okay, I have more things to do, and it gave me a bigger to-do list and took my focus away from the score.”
Amelia Garvey (-11, T4) on two consecutive low rounds:
“It's just nice to get some low rounds under the belt. You know, all year I've kind of just put up one low round a tournament, so it's nice to have two in there already. My game is feeling good, and I think I like having four rounds as well. You've got a bit more time.”
Karen Chung (-9, T10) on seeing her name near the top of the leaderboard:
“I mean, you're going to hear this a lot this week, but I really need this week. Right now, I’m going to Stage II, so it's nice to see my name up there right now. We still have two more days, and these girls are good, so I’ve got to hang in there.”
)
)
)
)
