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PORTLAND, Ore. — Esther Henseleit feels as if she has been spinning her wheels the final six months on the LPGA Tour. That made Friday on the AmazingCre Portland Traditional really feel as if she have been completely hovering.
Henseleit rolled in 10 birdie putts on her approach to an 8-under 64, giving the 23-year-old German a share of the lead with Lilia Vu going into the weekend.
Columbia Edgewater is tight and tree-lined with agency greens that roll true. Henseleit stored the ball in play and let her putter do the remainder of the work.
“I had some straightforward putts and hit the road and so they went in, in order that went effectively immediately,” Henseleit stated. “I had many possibilities, however they weren’t gimmes. I did not have a tap-in birdie in any respect.”
Vu, a former No. 1 beginner participant when she was at UCLA, had 4 birdies and an eagle on her opening seven holes after which performed steadily on the again 9 for a 66.
Vu and Henseleit have been at 10-under 134.
They have been one shot forward of Carlota Ciganda of Spain, who had a 66. The massive group at 8-under 136 included one other former No. 1 beginner, Andrea Lee, and one of many hottest gamers on the opposite facet of the Atlantic Ocean in Maja Stark of Sweden.
Stark, who performed at Oklahoma State, has gained 4 instances on the Women European Tour, together with the ISPS Handa World Invitational in Northern Eire, which was co-sanctioned by the LPGA Tour.
She is as much as No. 47 within the ladies’s world rating, and at No. 54 within the Race to CME Globe, is attempting to safe of the 60 spots within the season finale in Florida in November.
Lee began her season on the developmental Epson Tour after which began to interrupt out of a hunch with a superb end in Hawaii.
She reached the semifinals of the Financial institution of Hope LPGA Match Play in Las Vegas, had a tie for fifteenth within the U.S. Girls’s Open (she changed Inbee Park as an alternate) and now she is about for the highest 60 to get to the CME Group Tour Championship.
Nelly Korda, who wants a victory to return to No. 1 on this planet, by no means bought a lot going and dropped photographs on her ultimate two holes for a 73 that left her six photographs behind.
Henseleit opened with a 63 in Thailand in March and wound up in a tie for twelfth. That was the spotlight of her yr. She started lacking cuts and spending an excessive amount of time on Friday questioning if she can be going residence early.
“I had some fairly tough bumps since Thailand, and it is nice to see one thing coming your means. I simply will attempt to take pleasure in it and make the perfect of it and simply give myself possibilities,” Henseleit stated.
“It simply felt like nothing actually got here collectively,” she stated. “I have been working actually laborious and felt like each a part of my recreation has been bettering, however could not actually get the scores collectively. So yeah, simply good that immediately type of occurred and I did not must battle too laborious for it.”
Now she faces a site visitors jam over the subsequent 36 holes. Eighteen gamers have been separated by 4 photographs, with a number of gamers attempting to win for the primary time.
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