The second round at the French Lick Resort Charity Classic was suspended at 8:50 p.m. ET due to darkness. The second round will resume tomorrow at 7:30 a.m. ET, with round three scheduled to begin at 8:45 a.m. ET. As play concluded for the day, two players led the way, with a third player looking to join them after round two ends in the morning.
Jiwon Jeon got in her round just before the sunset on The Pete Dye Course at French Lick, with Jeon carding the lowest round ever at the French Lick Resort Charity Classic. The bogey-free 64 (-8) beat the previous best round by two shots, with Jeon matching the lead at the same time.
"My shots today were just really great," said Jeon. "I hit good shots yesterday, but I wasn't dropping any putts. Today I just wanted to really trust myself with my golf swing and I worked really hard on my putting after the round yesterday. I wanted to concentrate on my lines more and just trust those lines."
Joen started her day hot, making four birdies in her first six holes, then making the turn at five under. The more difficult front nine did not yield any problems for Jeon as she rolled in three more birdies to get to the eight-under mark. Jeon is already a champion this year, looking to join Jenny Bae and Gabriela Ruffels as the only two-time winners in 2023 with two more strong rounds this weekend.
"I hit eight greens on my front nine, which is the back nine because I started on 10," said Jeon. "I was able to shoot five-under, which was great. I was really proud of myself throughout the round and being able to hang in there. The front nine is a tricky nine for me so I just tried to keep it simple on that side and I did a really great job of that."
Maddie McCrary joins Jeon at eight-under after 36 holes by posting a 69 (-3) to go with her first-round 67 (-5). McCrary was able to push the lead to nine-under for most of her back nine in the second round, but a bogey on her last hole of the day would drop her back to eight-under for the tournament. McCrary is coming off an injury that took her out for the 2022 season but has found her game this week in French Lick. The 27-year-old has found success in her career playing in several LPGA Tour events and having multiple top-10 finishes on the Epson Tour.
"I think you really need to stay patient because this golf course is really tough," said McCrary. "Hitting fairways is the absolute key out here, and if you get in the rough, it is kind of difficult. Hitting fairways this week has been my strong suit this week and I just want to keep that going."
Laetitia Beck could not add to her six-under total from round one, but she did not lose any strokes either. The even par round kept Beck near the top of the leaderboard despite her not being able to get anything going in her second round.
"I know if I play my game I will continue to play well," said Beck. "I struggled a little bit on the front nine, but I was able to still make pars and then played much better on my back nine. I missed some very good few chances that I was able to make yesterday but overall, I have played some very good golf over the past two days."
QUICK QUOTES
Cynthia Lu (-5, T5) on a following her gameplan in the second round:
"I think I did a pretty good job following my gameplan today but on the front nine there were some tucked pins, and I got a little too aggressive on those. Then I got away from doing that and hit safer shots and was just able to make a few long putts."
Kristen Gillman (-4, T8) on a four-under second-round:
"This course is definitely tough and there is a lot of places that you don't want to miss. My dad and I kind of talked about it during our practice rounds, though, and you don't want to come out and play this course scared or nervous. So today I tried to play safe but when I had my opportunities, I attacked the pins."
Mariah Stackhouse (-4, T8) on moving her way into contention with a six-under round:
"Hitting it the fairway out here eliminates a lot of trouble and I was able to do that well today. You are going to miss fairways out here though because they are so tight, so you have to recover well. My gameplan coming into the day was to try and post something low because the hotter it is when I play the looser, I feel so I really wanted an afternoon tee time on the weekend, and I was able to do that. My local caddie this week has been a big help as well, so super thankful to have him on the bag with me this week."
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