Record-breaking 61 provides Ryu 5-shot cushion at Northwest Arkansas Championship

So Yeon Ryu fired a tournament-record 10-under 61 on Saturday to take a five-stroke lead into today’s final round of the Northwest Arkansas Championship at Pinnacle Country Club in Rogers. Ryu had 10 birdies in the round to move to 16-under 126 for the tournament. Stacy Lewis and Moriya Jutanugarn are tied for second. Amy Yang sits in fourth at 9 under.
So Yeon Ryu fired a tournament-record 10-under 61 on Saturday to take a five-stroke lead into today’s final round of the Northwest Arkansas Championship at Pinnacle Country Club in Rogers. Ryu had 10 birdies in the round to move to 16-under 126 for the tournament. Stacy Lewis and Moriya Jutanugarn are tied for second. Amy Yang sits in fourth at 9 under.

ROGERS -- So Yeon Ryu reached the ninth green Saturday with the 36-hole Northwest Arkansas Championship record all but sealed, even with a 10-foot birdie attempt in her sights.

Ryu -- who started on No. 10 -- was sitting at 15 under not knowing that par was already going to be enough to best the two-round mark of 14 under set last year by Lydia Ko and Morgan Pressel. With one flick of her putter, Ryu secured not only the two-round mark, but the tournament record with a 10-under 61, besting the 62 of Ko set last year and three others.

"Well, to be honest, I thought, 'Well, [it] could be I'm pretty close to it,' but that wasn't my goal," Ryu said of breaking the tournament record. "Just my goal was be the best at the present."

Currently ranked third in the Rolex World Golf rankings, Ryu finished second in Rogers in 2013, losing in a playoff to Inbee Park. The South Korean has finished no lower than 29th in five previous Northwest Arkansas Championships.

She started the day two strokes behind South Korea's Sung Hyun Park and ended it with a five-stroke lead over Moriya Jutanugarn and former four-time University of Arkansas, Fayetteville All-American Stacy Lewis.

Amy Yang is in fourth place at 9 under, with Aditi Ashok (64), Park, Minjee Lee and Suzann Pettersen a stroke behind that in a tie for fifth. Park, the 2016 gold medalist at the Rio de Janeiro Summer Olympics, had a triple bogey on the par-4 12th, her third hole of the day, before reeling off birdies on six of her next seven holes.

"I hit one bad shot today that ended up to be triple bogey," Park said. After that I made eight birdies, so I feel like I made a good comeback. I wish [the] triple bogey wasn't there, but I think it was still a very good round."

Ryu won this year's first major, the ANA Inspiration, when she defeated Lexi Thompson in a playoff after Thompson was informed between the 12th green and 13th tee of the final round that she was being penalized four strokes for infractions that occurred the day before. Ryu hasn't played since missing the cut June 2 at the ShopRite LPGA Classic.

"I think it was really helpful to have two weeks off ... I knew I had a good rest, so I felt so fresh to play," said Ryu, who leads the Tour in hitting greens in regulation and is in the top 10 in several other categories. "When you have two weeks off you kind of need to play as well, that also feels great to be in contention."

Ko, who is tied for 20th at 5 under, finished off her impressive 2016 Northwest Arkansas Championship by setting the tournament record with a 16-under 196. Although she is starting today at 16 under, Ryu said she has no goal of breaking Ko's record.

"I think after you shot like 6 under and 1 under [the] next round [is] going to be really tough because no matter how well you play, it's not going to be great enough compared to 10 under and 6 under," Ryu said. "I want to keep my same attitude tomorrow. Think about the present. Think about my own ball and think about this hole instead of thinking about [the] whole thing."

Jutanugarn -- the older sister of top-ranked Ariya Jutanugarn, who is not playing in Rogers this week -- got within five strokes of Ryu after a birdie on the par-5 14th. Lewis made it to 10 under for the second time on the back nine with a long birdie putt on the par-3 17th, then saw a much shorter birdie attempt on the 18th go inches by the hole before dramatically falling back into the hole.

"It broke a lot, and it was pretty tracked up there at the end of the day," Lewis said. "I think the crowds blew it in there on the backside."

Lewis came from four strokes behind to overtake Michelle Wie and hold off Ryu and Ko to win the 2014 championship, her last victory on the LPGA Tour. She said Ryu will be tough to beat but knows how difficult it will be for another record-setting round.

"I was shocked, actually, when we got on the course to see 16 under on the board," Lewis said. "I mean, I know this golf course is gettable, but that's playing some really great golf, so there was a little bit of pressure to go shoot a low number, and I still feel like I did that.

"I think she shot 10 under today. Those rounds are hard to follow up. I know what that is like. I just felt like if I could get close and a good round tomorrow, you never know what is going to happen."

Saturday's round was played in unseasonably cool conditions with temperatures in the mid-70s with light wind throughout the day making for near-perfect scoring conditions. Temperatures were in the mid-80s for most of Friday's first round before afternoon players were pulled off the course for 45 minutes early in their round because of lightning and rain, only to return to cooler but windier conditions.

Sports on 06/25/2017

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Sung Hyun Park held a two-stroke lead after her 8-under 63 in Friday’s first round, but the rookie fell into a tie for 10th Saturday after shooting a 2-over 73 in the second round.

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NWA Democrat-Gazette

Sung Hyun Park retrieves her ball after finishing on the 18th green Friday, June 23, 2017, during the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship presented by P&G at Pinnacle Country Club in Rogers.

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