Photo: Collected
South Korea's Amy Yang and American Sarah Schmelzel, each seeking her first major title, shared the lead after Friday's second round of the Women's PGA Championship while top-ranked Nelly Korda made an epic collapse.
World number 73 Schmelzel, who missed the cut in five of her past seven starts, fired the week's low round, a five-under 67, and Yang shot 68 to each finish on six-under 138 for 36 holes at Sahalee Country Club in Sammamish, Washington.
"It was a little softer this morning. Overall greens were perfect. I was just happy to take advantage of it," Schmelzel said.
"Definitely firmed up out there so if you can hit it well off the tee, I think you can have some shorter irons and you can be a little more aggressive."
Yang, who had the day's only bogey-free round, dropped her approach at the par-5 18th hole inches from the hole and tapped in to claim a share of the lead.
Korda, who has won six LPGA titles this season, was one stroke off the lead when the day began but fired a nine-over 81 -- the highest score of her professional career -- and finished on six-over 150 to miss the cut by a stroke.
Reigning Olympic champion Korda had eight bogeys and a double bogey before making her lone birdie at 18, a tap-in after nearly holing out from a bunker for eagle.
Sharing third on 140, two strokes off the pace, were American Lexi Thompson, Japan's Hinako Shibuno and South Korean Ko Jin-young. Yang has 21 career top-10 major finishes without a victory, her closest calls being runner-up efforts at the 2012 and 2015 US Opens. The 34-year-old won her fifth and most recent LPGA title at last year's Tour Championship.
Yang landed her approach at the par-5 sixth hole just outside eight feet then sank the birdie putt and after that made a 43-foot birdie putt at the par-4 seventh. She pulled within one of the lead by making a birdie putt from just outside 13 feet at the 15th, setting up her closing birdie.
Schmelzel made a 20-foot birdie putt at the par-5 second, made a birdie putt from just inside five feet at par-3 fifth, added another 20-foot birdie putt at seven, then made a four-foot birdie putt at 10 before her lone stumble, a three-putt bogey at the par-3 13th.
The 30-year-old American sank a 10-foot birdie putt at the par-3 17th and dropped her approach inches from the hole for a tap-in birdie at the par-5 18th.
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