Zhang sets another record, leads ANWA by 5

AUGUSTA, Ga. — Already the very best novice in girls’s golf, Rose Zhang set one other report Thursday to take a five-shot lead within the Augusta Nationwide Girls’s Novice, leaving her one spherical away on the house of the Masters from one other large title.

Zhang opened with a 6-under 66 at Champions Retreat to set the event report. She went one decrease Thursday with a 7-under 65 — regardless of making her solely bogey of the event — and completed with a protracted chip to three ft for birdie.

“This isn’t a course the place I can see a bogey-free 66. And what did she shoot at this time, 65? That does not even enter my mind,” mentioned Megha Ganne, who performs with Zhang at Stanford.

Zhang made it look that simple, even with one of many harder photographs. She pulled her drive on the par-5 ninth into the tough, the ball effectively above her ft. As an alternative of taking part in it protected, she hit 3-wood from 237 yards and aimed effectively proper of the inexperienced towards a TV tower.

It trundled onto the inexperienced to 30 ft, and she or he made the eagle putt.

“All I used to be considering was do not hook it to this point it goes into the timber,” she mentioned with amusing. “I used to be additionally considering of not topping it.”

She was at 13-under 131.

Andrea Lignell of Sweden, a senior at Ole Miss, had a 69 and was 5 photographs behind. Jenny Bae, a fifth-year senior at Georgia, had a 68 and was one other shot behind at 137.

Nobody else was inside fewer than 10 photographs of Zhang, a 19-year-old sophomore at Stanford and the reigning NCAA champion.

Zhang has a follow spherical Friday at Augusta Nationwide with the remainder of the 72-player area, after which 31 gamers who made the reduce at 2-over 146 will play the ultimate spherical on the house of the Masters, which begins subsequent week.

For therefore many, an opportunity to play at Augusta Nationwide is a deal with. To compete there’s even higher. That is previous hat for Zhang. She has made it to the ultimate spherical of the ANWA all 4 years it has been performed, beginning when she was 15 and in highschool.

She shared the lead going to Augusta Nationwide two years in the past, solely to take a triple bogey on the par-5 thirteenth to finish her probabilities. Now she leads by 5 and is taking part in her finest golf.

“From my previous expertise [with a big lead], it is essential to know you could have an entire area chasing you and something can occur,” Zhang mentioned. “Each gap, each rating issues. I am simply going to play as onerous as I can.”

The ultimate spherical will embrace one other 15-year-old in Gianna Clemente, who performed her first U.S. Girls’s Novice at age 11 and final 12 months made it by Monday qualifying for 3 consecutive LPGA Tour occasions.

Clemente confirmed her mettle Thursday. After opening with a 74 that left her exterior the reduce, she shot 32 on her second 9 for a 69. That included a 50-foot birdie on No. 2.

She has been in awe of Zhang ever since they performed a follow spherical at a junior event. She mentioned Zhang did a lot of the speaking. “She requested just a few questions and I in all probability stuttered just a few issues,” Clemente mentioned.

Anna Davis, the defending champion, by no means recovered from a four-shot penalty she was assessed on her opening gap Wednesday for lifting and cleansing her golf ball when it wasn’t within the fairway. She had a 9 and shot 76. Davis had a pair of bogeys on par 5s and missed the reduce by two photographs.

Additionally making the reduce had been Amari Avery, the No. 9 participant within the girls’s novice rating, with birdies on her final two holes. Probably the most unlikely to advance was Ting-Hsuan Huang of Taiwan. She opened with a 79 and bounced again with a 66 to make it to the ultimate spherical with two photographs to spare.