Wichanee Meechai became the latest surprise at a US Women’s Open full of them. She started Friday with four straight birdies and matched the week’s low score with a 3-under 67 for a two-shot lead heading into the weekend in which Nelly Korda will not be present.
Meechai is a 31-year-old Thai whose only win recognized in the women’s world rankings came nine years ago at the Taiwanese LPGA. She had never finished in the top 10 in her 20 previous appearances in the majors.
She went from five shots ahead of Andrea Lee to two shots behind in the span of five holes. Meechai held his own with two birdies over the final six holes to finish at 4-under 136, two shots ahead of Lee with only two other players under par.
A pair of former Women’s Open champions, Minjee Lee (69) and Yuka Saso (71), were three shots back at Lancaster Country Club.
“I feel like I might not make many birdies on the easier courses. I’m not that person,” Meechai said as she tried to explain her 36-hole lead in a major. “I like it when you have to think a lot, when you have to do it shorter and have patience.”
That worked to perfection to open the four holes, all birdie putts within five feet.
“I just picked the club that is shorter and hit it hard,” she said.
The week started with a surprise announcement by Lexi Thompson that she will be retiring at the end of the year. Her 18th and most likely final US Women’s Open ended early with rounds of 78-75.
It ends with Korda at home in Florida, missing the cut in almost a year.
Korda got a small measure of revenge on the par-3 12th, where she hit the water three times Thursday and shot a career-worst 10 on her way to an 80. This time the pin was at the back, not at the front , and she came up so short with a solid 8-iron that it looked like her golf ball was going to roll back into the water.
It was held up by a patch of grass. She poked a pitch to 20 feet and holed the par putt, then smiled and delivered a playful expletive on the green.
“I wanted to make a birdie to get revenge on that hole, but par is enough,” she said.
She should have saved those words for her golf. Korda, who entered the Women’s Open having won six of her last seven tournaments, made three straight birdies near the end of the front nine to move within reach of the cut.
But she didn’t hit the ball well off the tee, or from the fairway when she had the chance. She had just four looks at birdie on the back nine, shot 70 and missed the cut by two.
“When I made those three birdies in a row, I wanted to make the cut,” Korda said. “I knew I was kind of floating around it, and I just couldn’t get anything on the back end.”
Rose Zhang, Lydia Ko, Brooke Henderson and defending Women’s Open champion Allisen Corpuz also missed the cut.
Among those who stuck around was 15-year-old Asterisk Talley – her first name is Greek for “little star” – who had 15 pars in her round of 71 and was in a group of 1 over 141 that included U.S. Women’s Amateur champion Megan. Schofill.
Lee delivered a piece even more impressive than Meechai, and hers came in the middle of the round. The Stanford alum was on the ropes and in a bunker on No. 1 – her 10th hole of the round – when her shot rolled to a back pin and fell for eagle.
Lee followed with three consecutive birdies and was suddenly two ahead of Meechai in the group behind her. Lee three-putted from 30 feet before bogey on No. 5 and failed to save par from a bunker on the par-3 eighth.
She will be in the final group on Saturday, with Minjee Lee and Saso ahead of them and with much more experience in dealing with such a tough test.
Minjee Lee, whose two majors included a Women’s Open at Pine Needles two years ago, made consecutive bogeys on the turn and then played flawlessly the rest of the way. Saso, the 2021 Women’s Open champion at the Olympic Club, held her own after a tough start by going bogey-free over her final 12 holes.
Most tellingly, Saso was asked to describe her best shot and Lee asked about the one shot she would like to have back. Both had to turn to a scoring terminal showing their scorecards and refresh their memories of the rounds they had just completed.
That’s the kind of wave a Women’s Open, especially on a traditional course like Lancaster, can generate. It’s about grinding, getting to the next hole and not doing anything to ruin a round.
And then there’s Meechai, who is wonderfully self-deprecating about the way she approaches this test.
“I’m the person who has no confidence at all,” she said. “I’m thinking about missing the cut because I know I can shoot 1 under and 8 over the next day. It’s so easy for me. Trying not to think about it is the hardest thing for me, that’s why I’m so nervous.
Two other amateurs were among the 75 players who finished at 8-over-148. One of them was Adela Cernousek of France, a junior at Texas A&M who won the NCAA title two weeks ago. She opened with a 69 and was about to shoot 80 and miss the cut until her chip hit the pin of her final hole and she settled a yard away for par instead of returning from the front of the green. to roll into the fairway.