After two rounds at the Epson Tour’s Carlisle Arizona Women’s Golf Classic, Minori Nagano, Valery Plata and Liqi Zeng (above) lead the way at -8.
China’s Zeng got the scoring started early, playing in the first group off in the morning. Coming into the round at -6 she had three bogeys on her first nine, but overcame that with two birdies and a beautiful eagle on her ninth hole of the day, 18. Despite a tough pin position, she put herself into position for a makable uphill putt, and buried it. On the back she had to overcome two more bogeys, but made three birdies as well on a day where the TPC Scottsdale Champions Course played brutally difficult.
Japan’s Minori Nagano was much more consistent Friday, showing a lot of flash on the greens in particular. Besides one hiccup at the par 3 7th hole, Nagano was flawless, making seven birdies to post a -6 score for the day. Nagano isn’t worried about getting her first win on the Tour yet, just continuing to play good golf:
“I just want to be in a good position after tomorrow’s round, so I’m not thinking about winning or making a good score. I just wanna be in good position after tomorrow’s round,” said Nagano.
Colombia’s Valery Plata had a bumpy back nine with two bogeys, but benefited from a strong first round -5 score to stay at the top. In addition to the two bogeys, Plata also made five birdies on the day, taking advantage of the par 5s, with birdies on all four. After the round, Plata preached how important patience has been to her game plan this week.
“Maybe three or four holes in, I started feeling a little more comfortable and just swinging a little freely and, yeah, just hitting the shots that I’m planning to hit most of the time, so that’s good. And just sticking to our game plan, and I think it’s worked pretty well,” said Plata.
The third round of The Carlisle Arizona Women’s Championship continues Saturday. Stay tuned to Fore-All social media for onsite updates.
