An eagle before the turn buoyed Haeran Ryu's second round as the South Koreanative increased her lead to two strokes at the Black Desert Championship in Ivins, Utah.
Ryu fired a 63 on Thursday to kick off the inaugural LPGA event at Black Desert Resort. She doubled her lead with Friday's round of 67 that brought her to 14-under-par, ahead of countrywoman Somi Lee, who posted a second straight 66.
Ryu, ranked 12th in the world, was clinical on Friday, finding 13 of 14 fairways in regulation and 16 of 18 greens in regulation. Her only bogey cameat the third hole, and she responded from that with back-to-back birdies at five and six, then the eagle at the par-five ninth.
Ryu added birdies at 13 and 14 to get to 14-under.
Tied for third at 11-under are South Korea's Soo Bin Joo (68) and Germany's Esther Henseleit, who worked around a bogey and a double bogey to shoot 68 thanks to seven birdies.
Ariya Jutanugarn of Thailand and Wei-Ling Hsu of Taiwan both posted 70 and are tied for fifth at 10-under.
Two players tied for the low round of the day, a seven-under 65: Japan's Hinako Shibuno, who is part of a large knot at nine-under, and Scotland's Gemma Dryburgh, who climbed to eight-under.
They got there in vastly different ways. Shibuno made back-to-back eagles at the par-five 13th and par-four 14th. Dryburgh absorbed a double bogey and still had enough birdies (nine) to go low.
Dryburgh needed to improve on her 71 from Thursday to make the cut.
The cut came in at three-under. Notable players who did not advance to the weekend included A Lim Kim of South Korea (two-under), Nasa Hataoka of Japan (even par) and Allisen Corpuz (one-over).
