Carin Koch moves three shots clear

Carin Koch opened a 3-under 69 with an eagle 2 on Friday and went on to take a three-stroke lead after two rounds of the LPGA's Corona Morelia Championship.

Koch, who started the second round two strokes behind first-round leader Natalie Gulbis, holed a sand wedge from 97 yards for the eagle on No. 1, a 376-yard par 4.

"It was going straight in the hole and it just bounced once and went in the hole,'' said the 34-year-old who last won at the 2001 Corning Classic. "It was a really fun way to start.''

She birdied No. 5, but missed a 6-foot par putt on the next hole. She dropped another sand wedge within 3 feet for a birdie on No. 8 that moved her to 7-under for the tournament. She got to 8-under with a birdie on 16, but missed a 4-foot par putt on 18.

"I definitely left some putts out there, I had so many chances,'' Koch said. "I think a lot of players are leaving a lot of putts out there because the greens are very difficult to read.''

Wendy Ward, who won for the first time in nearly 4 years at the Takefuji Classic in Las Vegas last week, had a 69 and was at 4-under 140 after two trips around 6,763-yard Tres Marias Golf Club.

Ward opened the round with a birdie and then had five more in a six-hole stretch on the back nine. She said a chat with her caddie on the 11th tee turned things around.

"I was able to start knocking down some pins, kind of like last week,'' she said. "It was a matter of staying patient with your shots. Taking your chances when they were more realistic.''

Gulbis and Maria Hijorth were tied for third at 3-under.

Gulbis eagled the 390-yard, par-4 4th, but the consistency that had been the key to her first-round lead left on par-3 14th where she had a 6 on the way to the 75.

Hijorth had five birdies but she stumbled near the end of her 72, getting a double-bogey on 15 and a bogey on 16.

Local favorite Lorena Ochoa shot a 71 and was even after 36 holes.

Ochoa won twice in 2004 to become the LPGA Tour's first Mexican-born champion, and, despite temperatures that climbed to 91, about 150 fans -- including close friends and family members -- followed Ochoa throughout her round, some wearing "LORENA!'' T-shirts.

This is the fourth time in LPGA history and the second time this year the tour has made a stop in Mexico. Annika Sorenstam won the MasterCard Classic in early March just outside Mexico City, but is not playing this week.

Ochoa downplayed the notion that she has to win here to bolster the future of golf in Mexico.

"I don't want to put it that way, that I have to,'' she said. "But I really wish and I really want to. I want to play good for all of the country, all the people.''

Jean Bartholomew got the third hole-in-one on the tour this year. She aced the 106-yard 6th with a gap wedge, but she missed the cut with an 11-over 155.

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