Park In-Bee and Park Hee-Young of South Korea share a two-stroke lead after 36 holes at the HSBC Women’s World Championship in Singapore.
First-round leader In-bee carded a 3-under 69 yesterday and Hee-Young joined her at 11 under with a 69 in the second round at the New Tanjong Course at Sentosa Golf Club.
In-bee, who has hit 27 of 28 fairways, finished the front nine with three straight birdies and ended the round with five birdies and two bogeys.
“It was a little betrayal of my putter today,” she said. “Misread a few putts, but I still feel like I fought pretty well.... I was just trying to get my momentum going, and No. 7 definitely did it and from there, the round was a bit easier. A little rough start.”
After eight pars and a birdie on the front nine, Hee-Young had four birdies and a bogey on the back. She tied her countrywoman for the lead with a birdie at the par-4 18th.
“I missed a couple shots because with the heat and the conditions getting tougher, longer and a little bit of windy afternoon, but I leave a lot of birdies out there,” she said.
China’s Xiyu Lin and South Korea’s Hyo Joo Kim are tied at 9 under after rounds of 68. Spain’s Carlota Ciganda and So Yeon Ryu of South Korea share fifth place at 8 under. Five golfers are tied for seventh at 7 under: Lydia Ko and Hannah Green of Australia, Sophia Popov and Caroline Masson of Germany, and Amy Yang of South Korea.
Green’s 6-under 66 was tied for the low round of the day with American Ally Ewing, who is part of the group at 6 under.
“It was really nice being first group out,” said Green, who was 5-under par on the back nine. “Things were just flowing really well and was putting better strokes on putts and just trying to ride that wave, I guess. Missed a few greens... but still very happy with today’s round.”
Hee-Young and In-bee Park share more in common than just the lead heading into today’s third round.
“Hee-Young and I are almost the same age and we are a little more oldies on the tour. We were talking about, the weather is just killing us because we are not as young like 10 years ago,” In-bee, 32, said. “We had great fun out there with Hee-Young. She played great.... I’m looking forward to playing with her again.”

Leading scores after Round II
133 — Park Hee-young (KOR) 65-68, Park In-bee (KOR) 64-69
135 — Lin Xiyu (CHN) 67-68, Kim Hyo-joo (KOR) 67-68
136 — Carlota Ciganda (ESP) 69-67, Ryu So-yeon (KOR) 67-69
137 — Hannah Green (AUS) 71-66, Lydia Ko (NZL) 69-68, Amy Yang (KOR) 68-69, Sophia Popov (GER) 67-70, Caroline Masson (GER) 67-70