Golf: 13-yr-old leads way for Kiwi women

Aucklander Lydia Ko. Photo / Richard Robinson

New Zealand fired a four-under par 140 to move up the leaderboard after the second round of the Espirito Santo Trophy women's world teams golf championship in Argentina today.

The second youngest player in the field, Lydia Ko, 13, led the way for New Zealand with a three-under par 69 today with Cecilia Cho shooting a one-under 71, while yesterday's leader, Caroline Bon had the non-counting 78.

New Zealand is 15th on even par after two rounds, only four shots off the top 10 with the new leaders now the Queen Sirikit Cup champions Korea.

They fired an Espirito Santo record of 16-under par for their two best counting scores at the par-72 Buenos Aires Golf Club, which shattered the record for a single-round of 134, set by the United States in the second round in 1998.

New Zealand had a chance to make a significant inroad on the leaderboard when Cho worked her way to five-under par with four holes to play. However she bogied the 15th and 16th holes and made a double bogey on the final hole to finish on one-under.

"We played a lot better today. Yesterday we put the ball into some good positions and got ourselves into good scoring on the front nine. We could not quite take advantage on the final few holes which was disappointing," team captain Libby Steele said.

"Today, Lydia and Cecilia in particular did well and got some rewards. Cecilia ran out of energy and that proved costly for her and for us.

"We will work on that tomorrow for sure. Hydration and nutrition are really important in the heat here.

"Tomorrow we are in the top half of the field so we are playing with strong nations which will be excellent, and we are back on Buenos Aires where we played well today."

The team were also boosted with the arrival of the men's team for next week's Eisenhower Trophy event, as they supported the girls during their round today.

"The Koreans showed that you can make major moves in this format and we need to continue to work hard and take our chances."

Cho started today with birdies at the first, sixth, ninth, 10th and 11th holes before fading late in her round, while Ko bogied the fifth, eagled the sixth and made two more birdies coming home in her excellent three-under 69.

Bon could not repeat her first round efforts today, struggling with five bogies and a double bogey on the demanding Buenos Aires course.

Korea led the way today with a nine-under 63 by Ji-Hee Kim and 65 by Jung-Eun Han to jump to 15-under par overall and claim a one-shot advantage over first round leaders the United States with a further three shots back to Germany in third.

New Zealand are paired with Ireland and Spain in tomorrow's important third round.
Leading scores after two rounds:

273 Korea 145 128

274 United States 136 138

277 Germany 142 135

279 Philippines 144 135

281 Sweden 146 135, Argentina 140 141, South Africa 142 139, Mexico 143 138

282 Canada 144 138

284 France 140 144

285 Denmark 145 140, Japan 146 139

287 Ireland 144 143, Spain 142 145

288 NEW ZEALAND 148 140 (Lydia Ko 77 69, Cecilia Cho 75 71, Caroline Bon 73 78)

289 China 145 144, Belgium 148 141, Chinese Taipei 142 147

290 Netherlands 149 141, Puerto Rico 149 141

293 Australia 147 146, Austria 149 144, Colombia 150 143, England 151 142, Norway 149 144, Italy 150 143, Czech Republic 152 141

- NZPA