Women's British Open: Park struggles as Choi surges into lead
Inbee Park survived difficult conditions just well enough to reach the weekend at the Women's British Open, but the South Korean faces an uphill battle in her effort to become the first golfer - male or female - to win four major titles in a calendar year.
With winds gusting close to 30 mph on The Old Course at St. Andrews in Scotland on Friday, Park carded a second-round score of 73 and stands 2-under entering the third round. While that's three shots inside the cut line, it's also eight shots back of countrywoman Na Yeon Choi, who surged into the lead with a 5-under round of 67.
"Pressure I think got to me the last couple days," said Park. "This is pretty much the only week I'm going to get this much (attention). I should enjoy this moment."
Choi is at 10-under, one shot clear of China's Miki Saiki, who posted the low round of the day - a 6-under 66 - featuring a pair of eagles.
"The weather wasn't good," said Choi, the No. 4-ranked player in the world. "It was very hard. But my focus was very good and my caddie helped me a lot."
First-round leader Morgan Pressel is two shots off the pace after a solid second-round score of 70 and is alone in third place.
American Nicole Castrale, Norway's Suzann Pettersen and South Korea's Jee Young Lee are tied for fourth at 7-under, one shot ahead of Sweden's Mikaela Parmlid. Americans Angela Stanford and Stacy Lewis, the world's No. 2-ranked player, are in a group of five players at 5-under.
"We've seen this golf course player hard. We know how patient you have to stay," said Lewis.
Among those missing the cut were Yani Tseng (2-over), the world No. 1 entering the year who has tumbled out of the top 10 with four consecutive missed cuts and Australian Karrie Webb (6-over). American Lexi Thompson followed up a first-round 75 with a 77 on Friday and will not play the weekend at 8-over.
Americans of note entering the weekend include Paula Creamer (4-under), Natalie Gulbis and Jessica Korda (1-under), Michelle Wie (even) and Cristie Kerr (1-over).
Park won the U.S. Women's Open in July, the LPGA Championship in June and the Kraft Nabisco Championships in April. If she can't get a fourth major title in Scotland, another chance exists with the Evian Masters, added as a fifth major this season.
Bobby Jones won four majors in a calendar year, but two were amateur championships. He won the British Open, U.S. Open and the amateur events at those two tournaments.
Tigers Woods won the 2001 Masters after winning the British Open, PGA Championship and U.S. Open in 2000, giving him four successive major title wins.
"When you experience something big like this, some kind of big pressure like this, you're just really not afraid of any kind of pressure," Park said. "How can it get bigger than this? If you experience something like this, you're just ready to go and ready to experience something - anything's going to be less than this."
