Leona Maguire produced a sensational finish and birdied four of her last five holes to keep her victory hopes on life support in the Kroger Queen City Championship in Cincinnati.
Two shots behind South Africa’s Ashleigh Buhai after an opening 67, the Co Cavan star opened with 11 straight pars at TPC River’s Bend before following a double bogey at the third, her 12th, with a bogey at the next to find herself outside the top 40 on two-under.
But digging deep as she seeks her first win on the LPGA Tour this year, she birdied the fifth, sixth, eighth and ninth to card a one-under 71.
While she missed eight greens in regulation, Maguire’s hot finish catapulted her to a tie for 23rd on six-under at halfway.
But she’s six shots behind rising Thai star Jeeno Thitikul, whose 66 gave her a one-shot lead over LPGA Hall of Famer Lydia Ko on 12–under.
Ko shot a 66 in the morning wave before Thitikul matched her in the afternoon.
Like Maguire, she started on the back nine and grabbed her first of seven birdies on the par-five 11th.
She added another at the 13th after making a seven-foot putt and then made back-to-back birdies at the 17th and 18th to turn in 32.
She dropped a shot at the first but birdied the par-five sixth and the eighth before picking up another shot at the ninth.
“It’s pretty good,” Thitikul said. “I think it’s really kind of a low-scoring course, so a lot of players get low on this course.
“The par fives are reachable, can make all the par fives, I guess. That’s pretty much the point of this course.”
Unlike Thitikul and Maguire, Ko played in the softer morning conditions and made a birdie at the sixth and an eagle three at the eighth before adding further birdies at the 13th, 14th and 18th to be the only player to go bogey-free through 36 holes.
While Thitikul is searching for her second win of the season, 21-time LPGA winner Ko is chasing her third, which doesn’t include her gold medal at the 2024 ParisOlympics.
After winning the season-opening Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions, Ko’s win in Paris earned her the final point she needed for induction into the LPGA Hall of Fame.
She capped off the summer with her third major championship victory in the AIG Women’s Open in the Old Course at St Andrews and is now in the hunt for another win in Ohio.
“I obviously came off an amazing three-week stretch in Europe,” Ko said.
“In ways, I wanted to make sure that I kind of came back to the ground and work on the basics and the things I’ve been working on the past few months.”
She added: “I feel like I set myself a good plan going into the week, so that’s what I’m going to stick to.
“I know there is still a lot of golf to be played, so I will focus on me, and I think that’s the biggest thing that I’ve been doing well this past month or so.”
Haeran Ryu sits alone in third on 10-under while four players – Mexico’s Gaby Lopez and Maria Fassi, American Yealimi Noh and China’s Yan Liu – are tied for fourth.
There was a seven-way tie eighth that included Maguire’s Solheim Cup teammates Anna Nordqvist and Albane Valenzuela.