Galloway, N.J. - Dani Holmqvist maintained her one stroke lead Saturday after the second round of the ShopRite LPGA Classic Presented by Acer at Seaview Golf Club.
While her second round scorecard included three bogies, Holmqvist still managed to score enough birdies to finish 4-under for the day and 11-under for the tournament to maintain a one stroke lead over Hyo Joo Kim.
"You know, it's just some holes are tough, and it's--you know, it's a great course, and sometimes you get a good break and sometimes you get bad," Holmqvist said of her second round performance. "You can't dwell on it too much. I just tried to stay level and focus on the next shot."
This is only the second time that Holmqvist has held a lead after 36 holes in her career. The last time she held the lead after the second round of a tournament came during the 2020 AIG Women's Open where she would ultimately end up tied for 29th. This time, Holmqvist only has one more round to secure the victory.
"Well, I hope it turns out better than it did that time," Holmqvist joked, referring to her experience at the 2020 AIG Women's Open. "You know, I think there are so many good and talented players in this field, and it's going to be low scores. Only thing I can do is try to do the best that I possibly can, and hopefully that's enough."
Coming in behind Holmqvist, Kim finished the day at with a 6-under 65 to enter the clubhouse at 10-under-par for the tournament. Kim's scorecard included eight birdies compared to only two bogies, with two of her birdies coming consecutively on the final two holes of her round.
Rounding out the top-3 after day two, Ashleigh Buhai also shot a second round 65 to shoot up the leader board from a tie for 25th after day one, to solo third place after day two. Buhai birdied all three of Seaview's par-5s in addition to birdies on the par-4 first, sixth, and 12th, along with the par-3 11th.
"Not a real goal," Buhai said of parring every par-5, adding, "just trying to go out there and play golf, not play for a score, do what I've been doing the last few weeks. I know it sounds repetitive, but it's helping me play good golf--as long as I stay in the moment."
Buhai continued, "Obviously the par-5s are pretty gettable here. I'm an average hitter out here in terms of length, but today I could get up to like two of them. One played a lot more into the wind than normal, but I made a good up and down from about 75 meters (approximately 82 yards)."
While she may not have finished the day in the top-3 on the leader board, Wayne, New Jersey native Marina Alex also had a good second round in Galloway. Alex came into Saturday at +2, but a second round 65 put her at -4 for the tournament after day two and allowed her to safely make the cut, which was made at +1.
The ShopRite LPGA Classic concludes Sunday with the first golfers of the day teeing off at 7 a.m. The action from Galloway can be seen live on the Golf Channel from 2:30 p.m to 5 p.m. with additional, streaming coverage on golfchannel.com, NBCSports.com, and the NBC Sports App from 2 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.
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