ROGERS -- World No. 1 Lydia Ko provided the thunder Saturday on a dry, steamy day at Pinnacle Country Club.
Ko, 19, made eagle on the par-5 18th to catapult into a share of the lead with Morgan Pressel at 14 under after the second round of the Wal-Mart NW Arkansas Championship.
Ko's 9-under 62, which included a 7-under 28 on the back nine, tied the tournament record for a second time in consecutive days and set a final pairing with Pressel, who hasn't won on the LPGA Tour since October 2008 at the Kapalua Classic.
"I think the key was I gave myself good looks and birdies, and no matter what, I was going to commit to my putting line," said Ko, whose fairway metal from a downhill slope on her second shot set up her 12-foot eagle putt on 18. "That's all you can do. Try to give yourself good looks and birdies."
Ko has finished no lower than sixth in her three years playing the tournament. She finished tied for second with Cristie Kerr, a stroke behind Stacy Lewis (Arkansas Razorbacks) in 2014 and tied for sixth last year.
Lewis, a former World No. 1, started the day at 4 under and stayed at 3 under most of the day after opening with a bogey. But birdies on the 12 and 15 got her into the clubhouse at 5 under and in a tie for 36th. She hasn't won on the LPGA Tour since winning in Rogers in 2014.
Pressel, 28, birdied five of her final eight holes, including a tap-in birdie at the 18th. She began the round six strokes behind Jing Yan, who had the first tee time of the day and shot her second consecutive 6-under 65. Pressel was coming off a 65 in the opening round and got off to a slow start Saturday with pars on her first four holes but made birdies on three of her next five to make the turn at 9 under.
Birdies on Nos. 11, 13 and 14 tied her with Jing Yan, who shot a second consecutive 6-under 65 to take the clubhouse lead at 12 under.
Pressel took the lead after hitting a 9-iron to within 10 feet and making birdie on 17 and increasing the lead to two after 18 before Ko came charging over an hour later.
"I think I hit 15 greens or so today and gave myself a lot of birdie opportunities," said Pressel, a two-time LPGA winner who is 52nd on the 2016 money list and 34th in the world rankings.
Yan, 20, has one top 10 this year, a fifth-place finish at the ShopRite Classic in June. The 157th ranked player, who made eagle at the par-5 seventh, had missed seven of 13 cuts before Saturday's 65 kept her safely at the top of the leaderboard.
She'll go into the final round tied for third with Candie Kung and Alena Sharp at 12 under.
"I think this week I'm hitting it a lot better and I'm making a lot of putts, so those two things I have been really on and off this year," Yan said.
"But in terms of score, I wasn't really thinking about the score at all, or the leaderboard, because this is the first week that I'm trying not to do that, not to let it affect me, but I know I wanted to get a low number going in.
First-round leader Ayako Uehara, who tied the tournament record with a 62 on Friday, fell back to 24th Saturday after a 3-over 74 left her 8 strokes behind the leaders.
The cut was 3 under, the lowest in the tournament's 10 years. The previous mark was 2 under set a year ago when Na Yeon Choi won with a tournament-record 15-under 198. Choi missed this year's cut, finishing at 4-over 146 despite an even-par 71 Saturday.
"You can see by the scores there are some low numbers out there, so typically you could be five, six shots behind and you may shoot a magical number and be right up there in contention, like I've experienced in the past," said Ko, who shot a final-round 63 last year to tie for sixth.
"So, I don't think you can take anyone out of it. It's a field with a lot of big names, so even though I'm currently leading and tied with Morgan, you just can't take anyone out of it within that five-, four-shot lead range."
Gaby Lopez, the former Razorback who turned professional at the beginning of the year, made the cut a little more interesting. The Mexico native made a 45-foot eagle putt on the 18th to get her at the 3-under cut line.
Current Razorbacks Maria Fassi (142), Regina Plasencia (143) and Alana Uriell (145) all missed the cut in their first NW Arkansas Championship appearance.
Sports on 06/26/2016