Notables who missed the cut at KPMG Women's PGA on toughest day of the year on LPGA

FRISCO, Texas – The toughest day of the year on the LPGA brought more six-hour rounds and a number of notable players heading home before the weekend at the KPMG Women's PGA. Only two holes averaged under par at Fields Ranch East, where the second-round scoring average of 76.012 is the second-highest at an LPGA major in a decade.
Jeeno Thitikul, who has a chance to rise to No. 1 in the world with a victory, opened up a three-shot lead over two-time major winner Minjee Lee (72) and Rio Takeda (71) at 6 under after rounds of 68-70. Part-time player Lexi Thompson sits four back, with only a total of seven players finishing under par after two rounds.
The cut fell at 7 over, with 78 players making the weekend.
Mao Saigo, winner of the 2025 Chevron Championship, and last year's KPMG Women's PGA champion Amy Yang, were among the players to miss the cut.
The struggle also continued for former No. 1 Lilia Vu, who shot 77-76 to miss her fourth consecutive cut this season.
Another former No. 1, Jin Young Ko, withdrew midway through her second round due to illness on a day when the feels-like temperature hit triple-digits. Ko shot 74 in the opening round and was shown on the broadcast leaving the golf course after making double bogey on No. 12. She was six over in her last four holes, moving to 10 over on the championship.
The 29-year-old Ko, a 15-time winner on the LPGA, tied for 14th at the U.S. Women's Open and took a share of sixth at Chevron.
Later in the day, fellow South Korean Hyo Joo Kim pulled out of the championship after nine holes with an injury. Kim opened with a 76 in Round 1 and made birdie on her last hole before calling it a day.

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Learn with AIFact CheckingText to SpeechAI Summary

Related Articles

San Francisco Chronicle​

an hour ago

• San Francisco Chronicle​

In America's Outfield, Giants' Ramos, Lee and Yaz bond over differences (and trash talk)

The San Francisco Giants feature America's Outfield, if you define America as a cultural and ethnic melting pot. The left fielder is Puerto Rican, the center fielder is South Korean, born in Japan, and the right fielder is American, with Polish and Italian immigrant roots holding up his family tree. Left to right, they are Heliot Ramos, Jung Hoo Lee and Mike Yastrzemski. Pronounce and spell all three names correctly, win a prize. It's a defensive rainbow coalition. Probably the first Dominican/Korean/Polish-Italian American outfield in major league history. They've come to the right team. The Giants, New York and San Francisco, are big on ethnic outfield firsts. The first MLB all-Black outfield — Monte Irvin, rookie Willie Mays and Hank Thompson in the 1951 World Series. The first all-Latino outfield, which was also the first and only all-brothers outfield — Felipe, Matty and Jesus Alou, for eight games in 1963. Ramos, Lee and Yastrzemski are close neighbors in the clubhouse, too, their lockers side-by-side-by-side in one corner. Make it a foursome, counting Justin Han, Lee's interpreter. The Giants' clubhouse dressing cubicles are arranged by position. 'It's about being close to the guys you're going to be playing close to,' Yastrzemski says. 'There's so much communication that goes on out on the field, and it all starts in here, so it's nice to be close to each other. We can talk about how we're going to play against a certain team, how we're going to do against a certain guy, so it's pretty helpful.' In their first full season together, the three have become buddies. Amigos. Be peu. 'Sometimes baseball,' Lee says when asked what the three talk about, 'but more of it is just joking around, you know, being friendly with each other.' 'We're super close to each other,' Ramos says, referring to more than geography. 'We have a good communication, we talk a lot of crap to each other, we just play around a lot.' Yastrzemski says, 'We go out to eat on the road together a decent amount. Me and Ramos both have families, so if they're on the road, one of us will be missing (from dinner), but we try to do as much stuff together as possible.' Language is not a barrier. Ramos speaks English fluently, working at it since he signed his first pro contract at 17. 'I feel like I'm still learning a lot,' Ramos says. 'It was a challenge for sure when I was coming up, but I feel pretty good at it now. It was a main thing for me, I watched everything in English, all my friends were Americans, that helped me a lot. I like talking, so I just go out there and talk, I'm not shy.' Lee works hard on his English. 'Jungy's done a great job of focusing on learning English, and he understands really well,' Yastrzemski says. 'I don't think he's quite comfortable talking to the media in English, but he does pretty well with us, and he understands just about everything we're saying, which is great. 'At the same time, I'm learning some Korean and some Spanish words, we all just kind of mix and match and have fun with it. There's some interesting conversations.' What has Yastrzemski learned in Korean? 'A lot of it is probably stuff that I can't say (for print). That's obviously our nature, the first place we want to go is to learn the curse words and the ways to make fun of each other.' Lee says, through Han, 'I have Justin around, he helps out, but the players also help out with English, so that makes it comfortable for me.' Learning English is no picnic for a South Korean. English has sounds that don't exist in Korean, and vice versa. Humor helps, it's kind of universal. 'Youngie's pretty funny,' says Ramos, who gives Lee's nickname a Latin flavor with the soft J, while Yastrzemski gives it the hard J — Jungie. The three have stuff in common, such as athletic bloodlines. Lee's father, Jong Beom Lee, was a star player in the Japanese and Korean major leagues. His nickname was Son of the Wind. Jung Hoo's nickname in Korea was Grandson of the Wind, although his speed is only slightly above average. Ramos' older brother Henry is a true baseball journeyman, currently in the 16th year of that journey, which has included a cup of coffee in the big leagues and two seasons in the Korea Baseball Organization. Another older brother, Hector, was a professional soccer player. Yastrzemski's grandfather is, of course, Red Sox Hall of Famer Carl. Carl's parents emigrated from Poland to become potato farmers on Long Island. Mike's mother's family traces back to Italy. All three Giants have roots in great baseball cultures. South Korea came relatively late to the game, but has produced 29 MLB players, seven of whom are currently in the majors. Puerto Rico's rich baseball world has churned out more than 400 big leaguers, including late Giants legend Orlando Cepeda. Culture-wise, Yastrzemski trumps his buddies. Historical records show that in the early 1600s, Polish immigrants brought a sport to the New World, a game called palant, played with a bat and a ball made of rags, to the amusement of Native American spectators. In the outfield, Ramos, Lee and Yastrzemski communicate with looks, gestures and baseballese. Question to Lee: How do you say, 'I got it'? Lee (skipping his interpreter): 'I got it.'

Fox Sports

4 hours ago

• Fox Sports

Jeeno Thitikul extends Women's PGA lead and semi-retired Lexi Thompson contending for another major

Associated Press FRISCO, Texas (AP) — Semi-retired Lexi Thompson is going into the weekend contending for her first major title in more than a decade, and in a dwindling group of players under par at the KMPG Women's PGA Championship while Jeeno Thitikul extended her lead. Thitikul, the No. 2-ranked player in the world, finished a six-hour round Friday not long before sunset with consecutive birdies for a 2-under 70 to get to 6-under 138. She had a three-stroke lead over Rio Takeda (71) and Minjee Lee (72), and was four ahead of Thompson (70) after another steamy day on the Fields Ranch East course at PGA Frisco. 'To be honest, didn't (think) it's going to be that good result out there,' said Thitikul, the 22-year-old seeking her first major win. 'Especially today just said to my coach, `Like if anybody can shoot under par today, that player will be really, really great.' I'm shooting 2-under par and I was like, `Wow!' With the feel-like temperatures going over 100 degrees and the ever-present Texas wind, only seven of the 156 players who started the season's third major were under par through two rounds. There have been no bogey-free rounds this week. There were 15 players under par after the first round, when Thitikul's opening 68 put her a stroke ahead of fellow North Texas resident Lee. Thitikul, a five-time winner from Thailand, was in the same group the first two rounds with top-ranked Nelly Korda, whose only two birdies Friday came over the final three holes. Korda had a 74 and is 2 over for the week. Even though Thompson is no longer playing a full schedule, she still practices and works on her game pretty much all the time when at home. 'Any time I tee it up I want to come out here and compete and win. I just want to make sure that I'm fully ready every time I tee it up,' Thompson said. 'Yeah, I mean, it put my mind more at ease coming out here knowing that I'm not playing a full schedule, grinding week in, week out, and looking forward to the weeks off.' After an even-par round Thursday, Thompson was bogey-free in the second round until hitting her approach at the 18th into the bunker and being unable come up with yet another par-saver. The 30-year-old Thompson, who has said last year was her final one playing a full schedule, is in her seventh tournament this season, including all three majors so far, and indicated that she will play again next week at the Dow Championship in Michigan before 'a long time off.' Her only major victory was at the Kraft Nabisco Championship in 2014, though her 13 top-five finishes in majors since 2013 are the most by any player and among her 20 top-10 finishes in those events. Thompson, whose last win in any tournament was in 2019, said she is not yet allowing herself to think about what it would mean to win another major. She missed the cut at the U.S. Women's Open three weeks ago, but last week was in contention in the final round before tying for fourth at the Meijer LPGA Classic. "It's just something that I'm going to take one shot at a time. When you get to thinking too far ahead of time it just gets to you, so I'm just really going to embrace the moment,' she said. 'Come out on the weekend and just hope for the best, that's all I can do.' Her shots to save par Friday were really better the three birdies — the longest an 11-footer, with a 6 1/2-footer and nearly 4-footer as well. Thompson was only 70 yards from the pin after her tee shot at the 10th, but hit her approach into the bunker and was still 43 feet away after knocking it out of there before a curling right-to-left putt. At the par-5 14th, her 5-foot putt did a 360-degree roll around the lip before falling into the cup. 'Made No. 10 a lot more difficult from my drive. Hit a great drive and I got it pretty close to the green, but they tucked the pin back right over there, so got a little greedy instead of just hitting it out to the left and ended up plugging it in the bunker,' Thompson said. 'Saving pars out there are huge.' ___ AP golf:

Yahoo

5 hours ago

• Yahoo

Hull cards lowest second round at PGA Championship

Charley Hull has two career wins on the LPGA Tour [Getty Images] Women's PGA Championship first-round leaderboard: -6 J Thitikul (Tha); -3 M Lee (Aus), R Takeda (Jpn); -2 L Thompson (US); -1 C Iwai (Jpn), A Kim (US), S Lee (Kor) Selected others: +2 N Korda (US), L Maguire (Ire); +3 C Hull (Eng); +4 L Ko (NZ) Advertisement Leaderboard England's Charley Hull carded the lowest second-round score at the Women's PGA Championship as Thailand's Jeeno Thitikul extended her lead at the top of the leaderboard. Hull carded a three-under-par 69, which included four birdies and a bogey, in the only round under 70 on a day when only 14 players broke par in hot and windy conditions at the Fields Ranch East course in Texas. The 29-year-old shot 78 in her opening round and is on three over for the tournament, with leader Thitikul on six under. World number two Thitikul has yet to win a major but put herself in a promising position after a two-under par round of 70, which included four birdies and two bogeys. Advertisement Thitikul said the "wind and the rough" provided the toughest challenges during the second round. She added: "I had better tee shots than yesterday and put myself in the positions that I have a chance. "If not, I just tried to make par. I think par, it's a really big key here - no birdies but 18 pars, you take it." Thitikul's nearest challengers are Japan's Rio Takeda, who shot a 71, and Australian Minjee Lee, who went round in 72, with both players on three under par. American Lexi Thompson is on two under following a 70. "[It] got pretty windy even for the morning," said Thompson. "It was blowing more than it did yesterday, so I knew I just had to commit to my lines out there. Advertisement "It's a tough golf course, especially when the wind blows. If you miss the fairways you just have to take your medicine, pitch out, and try to save par any way you can, make the worst score a bogey." World number one Nelly Korda could only manage a 74, which included two birdies and four bogeys, and the American is on two over par, while Ireland's Leona Maguire is on the same score after also carding a 74. South Korea's Amy Yang won the tournament last year but, after rounds of 76 and 77, missed the cut on nine over par.