Feb 16, 2018: LPGA Tour rookies Jin Young Ko and Emma Talley are at the top of the leaderboard through two rounds of the ISPS Handa Women’s Australian Open, and despite their first-year status on Tour, both Ko and Talley are looking comfortable in their positions.
Ko is already a winner on the LPGA Tour, having captured the LPGA KEB HanaBank Championship a year ago, plus notching two other top-20 finishes. She took up full-time LPGA Tour membership this season.
Ko leads by three over Talley after a 3-under-par 69 on Friday. She started her day with three-straight birdies and was 4-under through five holes. She made back-to-back bogeys on No’s 11 and 12 to fall back slightly.
She said she had two keys to her round today.
“One key is my thinking and one other key is my putting,” said Ko.
The 22-year-old also held the 36-hole lead when she went on to win the LPGA KEB HanaBank Championship. In fact, she led that championship wire-to-wire, and said she would lean on that experience moving through the weekend in Australia.
Talley, meanwhile, is coming off a solid Symetra Tour campaign and is showing promise in the early days of her rookie campaign on the LPGA Tour, having made the cut at the first event of the season.
Talley won on the Symetra Tour a year ago but this is the first time she’s been close to the lead on the LPGA Tour – sitting just three shots back of Ko at 7-under par through two rounds.
The 23-year-old made just one bogey Friday en route to a 3-under-par 69. She admitted her swing was “so messed” on Sunday but got onto FaceTime with her coach back in the U.S. and managed to get things sorted in time for this week’s event.
India’s Aditi Ashok had a rough day again in the second round. After adding similar four-over 76 to the first round Aditi could not make the cut.
LPGA Tour Release
