By: Max Bechtoldt
The Dow Championship can sometimes lead to some outside of the box leaderboards. With it being a different format, different players and partnerships may rise to the top outside of the highest ranked in the world. This week though, the biggest stars in the field are playing well.
At the conclusion their first two rounds, Ally Ewing and Jennifer Kupcho are in the lead at -12, after shooting two rounds of 64. This shouldn’t be a huge surprise, Kupcho has thrived in this format before, winning in 2022 alongside Lizette Salas, and Ewing has been playing arguably the best golf in the world over the last month. Today, Kupcho was the only one to make a single bogey, which was covered up by Ewing’s par on the same hole.
Also playing well are Lexi Thompson and Brooke Henderson. Without a doubt the biggest pure star power in the field, they sit in a T4, two strokes back. While Ewing has played elite golf as of late, Thompson is right there with her, bouncing back well after a poor start to the season. Thompson was -6 on her own ball today. The big issue for this team is they’re birdieng the same holes. Four of Thompson’s six birdies, Henderson also made birdie, while Henderson didn’t make any additional.
The Jutanugarn sisters, champions in 2021, are also in the top five, each looking for their first win since that title. One back of Ewing and Kupcho in second are the teams of Auston Kim & Grace Kim and Charley Hull and Georgia Hall, Rounding out a tight leaderboard with absolute stars everywhere.
In the afternoon it’ll be interesting to see if teams can take advantage of the warmer, better scoring conditions, to get into double figures out of par. Will we see a team break 60? Its possible.
