NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. – As darkness fell on Aronimink, Sei Young Kim’s fire lit up the board as she put the finishing touches on a 5-under 65. Kim birdied four consecutive holes (Nos. 4-7) to shoot 6-under 29 on the front nine and take the midway lead at the KPMG Women’s PGA at 4-under 136.
A 10-time winner on the LPGA without a major title, 27-year-old Kim has yet to finish outside the top 25 in five appearances at this championship. She finished second to Inbee Park in 2015 and tied for fourth in 2017.
Kim’s 29 ties the scoring record for the Women’s PGA. In 2018 at the BMW Championship, both Tiger Woods and Justin Thomas shot 29 on the front nine in soft conditions at Aronimink.
It was anything but soft on this fall Friday afternoon.
SCORES: KPMG Women’s PGA Championship
When asked if she felt ready to win a major, Kim said, “It’s always my goal.”
Thirteen players finished the first two rounds under par. Four players trail Kim by one stroke including Danielle Kang, Anna Nordqvist, Jennifer Kupcho and Carlota Ciganda.
Major winners Lydia Ko, Brittany Lincicome and In Gee Chun are within three strokes.
Nordqvist won this tournament back in 2009 as a rookie on the LPGA. She didn’t have a full status going into the event, having only made four previous professional starts.
“I remember I teed off first on Thursday morning at like 6:30 or something,” said Nordqvist, “and then played in the last group on Sunday. That was a big moment because it was questioned whether I should stay in school or leave school, but I followed my heart and went the pro route, and I think winning, knowing that I was going to have status on Tour for the next three years, that was huge for me.”
Nordqvist is one of three Arizona State players on the leaderboard, joined by fellow Swede Linnea Strom (-2) and Spain’s Ciganda (-3).
Annika Sorenstam turned 50 on Oct. 9 and both Nordqvist and Strom reflected on what the LPGA’s legend has meant to them personally.
“I started playing golf when I was 13,” said Nordqvist, “so that would have been back in, I think, 2000, which was probably her peak year. So being able to grow up and having a role model from Sweden at the top of the world was pretty awesome, and just a lot of inspiration.”
Sorenstam retired the year before Nordqvist came out on tour, but she played for Sorenstam on the Solheim Cup team and for years lived in the same Lake Nona community.
Strom, 23, first met Sorenstam as a 12-year-old at a camp in Sweden and won the ANNIKA Invitational Europe in 2012.
“It’s always been a big motivation, what she’s done,” said Strom, who won on the Symetra Tour in 2018 and was a rookie on the LPGA last season.
LPGA Hall of Famer Inbee Park and Brooke Henderson, both past champions of this event, are four strokes back.
Kupcho, winner of the 2019 Augusta Women’s Amateur, matched Kim’s 65 as did LPGA rookie Bianca Pagdanganan, who rebounded from an opening 77. Pagdanganan currently leads the LPGA in driving distance at 287 yards.
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