Park extends lead to four shots

Grace Park followed her sensational first round with a steady, 5-under 67 Friday and opened a four-shot lead midway through the Samsung World Championship.

Park, who had perhaps the best round of her career when she shot a 62 to begin the tournament, went to 15-under 129 through 36 holes at Bighorn Golf Club.

Shi Hyun Ahn, like Park a native of South Korea, and Karen Stupples matched 65s and were tied for second.

Three-time tournament champion Annika Sorenstam was tied for fourth, five shots off the lead, with Cristie Kerr, Lorena Ochoa and Catriona Matthew.

Sorenstam shot a 68, including a bogey on the final hole. Kerr and Ochoa also had 68s, and Matthew shot a 70.

Amateur Michelle Wie matched par and was at 146 through two rounds. Wie, a 10th-grader in Honolulu who turned 15 on Monday, was ahead of only Laura Davies (147) in the select 20-player field.

While she said she was "thrilled" after her first round, Park was satisfied with her second.

"It's always hard to follow a round like I had yesterday," she said. "I played solid today. I left a few good chances out there, but 5 under, I'll take that."

Park had her lone bogey of the day when her drive sailed into desert brush -- and an unplayable lie -- alongside the fairway on No. 7. With a 34 at the turn, she came back with a 33 on the back nine, including three consecutive birdies beginning at No. 12.

Her confidence remained sky-high.

Asked if she began the second round thinking she could score as low as the first day, she said, "I told myself, `Why not?' I feel like I could birdie every hole on this course, the way I've been striking the ball and putting."

Park finished with a scrambling par. Her drive went into the sandy soil off the fairway and the ball was slightly embedded next to a lip of grass, with a prickly pear cactus not giving her much room on her backswing.

She recovered with a shot to the front of the green and two-putted. Later, she said the lie wasn't as bad as it looked.

"I couldn't go for the pin, but I had a big landing area (on the green)," she said.

Park settled for pars on 16 and 17. Her putts from 12 feet on 16 and 18 on 17 were dead on line, but the ball stopped inches short of the cup both times.

For one of the few times during her round, Park wasn't smiling when she walked from the 17th green to the 18th tee.

Sorenstam, the 1995, 1996 and 2002 champion, finished her second round with a bogey 5 on No. 18. Her first putt, from 30 feet, was too strong and left her a 7-footer coming back. She missed it for the first bogey in her last 26 holes.

"On the back, I couldn't get it going," said Sorenstam, who had a 32 on the front nine and was four strokes worse after the turn. "The pace slowed down and then I hit every lip and so it kind of left a sour taste in my mouth.

"There's still two days to go and I've got to play good golf. It's in me, so now I just have to do it."

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