Paula Reto made an eagle on her third hole on Friday on her way to carding a three-under-par 69 in the second round of the LPGA Tour’s Meijer LPGA Classic for Simply Give at Blythefield Country Club in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
After her opening two-under 70, Reto birdied her first hole in the second round – the 10th – and then made a superb eagle-two on the par-four 12th. In a front nine on which she made just two pars, she made two more birdies and three bogeys to turn in two-under 36. She made two birdies and a bogey on her homeward nine, and reached five-under for the tournament.
That put her in a share of 25th, six strokes behind joint leaders Ally Ewing of the United States and Grace Kim of Australia. At 11-under, they led by two from Na Rin An of Korea and Nana Koerstz Madsen of Norway. There were five players on eight-under, six on seven-under and nine on six-under on a crowded leaderboard.
Ewing shot the round of the week through 36 holes with a nine-under 63 second round. She started the day just before Kim, teeing off on the first in the morning wave and sinking two birdies right off the bat. She added another on the par-three fifth and then made an impressive eagle on the par-five eighth, her second of the week on that hole.
After making the turn in 31, Ewing added four more birdies on the back to come in at 63, tying her career-low round on the LPGA Tour and her career-best 36-hole score with 133.
Meanwhile, on the opposite side of the course Kim was also going low, getting off to a hot start with birdies on 11, 12 and 14. She dropped a shot with a bogey on 17, but quickly made up for it and then some with an eagle on 18. After a frustrating streak of five-straight pars, she finally sank three consecutive birdies on six, seven and eight to finish seven-under on the day and 11-under overall.
Ashleigh Buhai was one shot behind Reto on four-under after her second round of 72. She made four birdies and four bogeys.
