Bianca slips to joint 28th after 75

Bianca Pagdanganan carded a three-over-par 75 in the second round of the Lotte Championship in Oahu, Hawaii on Thursday, struggling to make birdies despite saving par seven times.

The 26-year-old Filipina, who is fighting to retain her LPGA Tour card, dropped to a tie for 28th at 2-under par, following a promising opening 67 on Wednesday.

Although Pagdanganan averaged 289 yards off the tee and hit 12 of 14 fairways, her iron game faltered as she managed to hit just eight greens.

Ranked 107th in the Race to CME Globe, Pagdanganan is hoping to make the Top 100 to secure full-exempt status for next season.

Clariss Guce posted an even-par 72 to move into a tie for 21st at 3-under, while Dottie Ardina missed the cut after shooting a 77.

Meanwhile, four players sit tied for the lead after 36 holes, with three of those players looking for their first LPGA Tour victories.

The 2020 US Women’s Open champion A Lim Kim shares the top spot of the leaderboard with rookie Nataliya Guseva, three-time JLPGA winner Yuri Yoshida and seven-time Epson Tour champion Ruixin Liu at 9-under in Ewa Beach. Guseva and Yoshida shot 5-under 67s on Thursday, as both 2024 freshmen Members hold individual post-round leads on Tour for the first time in their careers. Despite one bogey on the card (No. 17), Guseva knocked in four birdies and an eagle on the par-4 7th to card her lowest individual second-round score this season.

Yoshida, who entered the week ranked No. 132 in the Race to CME Globe, carded six birdies and one bogey en route to 9-under, the lone player of the morning wave to share the lead.

Liu, who won on the Epson Tour this year at the Carlisle Arizona Women’s Golf Classic, shot a 68 to record her lowest 36-hole score since the Kroger Queen City Championship presented by P&G in 2023.

Rounding out the challengers is the 18-hole leader Kim, who had an adventure of a second round.

Starting on No. 10, Kim posted two birdies, two bogeys and two pars in her first six holes and finished out her front nine with a birdie on the 18th.

With momentum on her side, she went on to birdie four of the next six holes after the turn and got to 11-under heading to the seventh tee, before dropping two shots in her final two holes to finish with a second-round 69.

“Today feel like a little change the wind every time, every single hole, so some hole made mistake and some hole I think it’s great,” Kim said. “So that’s golf.”

LPGA Tour winner Ryann O’Toole posted a bogey-free 66, her third blemish-free round of the 2024 LPGA Tour season, to sit in solo fifth at 8-under. Auston Kimalso recorded a 66 on day two and sits just two shots out of the lead in sixth.

Five players are tied for seventh at 6-under, including six-time LPGA Tour winner Nasa Hataoka, who shot the week’s lowest round on Friday — an 8-under 64, matching her season low.

Defending champion Grace Kim’s 4-under 68 carried her to a tie for 15th, while two-time LOTTE champion Brooke Henderson is among a tie for 21st at 3-under. There were 65 players to make the cut at even par, including major champion Angela Stanford.

Stanford went out in 37, and was in danger of missing the cut as she hit 3-over total heading to the 14th hole. Admittingly frustrated, and determined to make the cut in what could be her final event of her professional career on Tour, Stanford carded two birdies on 14 and 16, and chipped in for eagle on 18 to slide into the next two days.