Annie Park trying to go from last to first at Chevron Championship

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This article was published 01/04/2022 (1626 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Annie Park was the last golfer to earn a spot in the field of the Chevron Championship. Through two rounds, she is on track to go from last to first.

Park, who played by herself on Thursday and Friday at the LPGA Tour’s first major of the year, is just one shot back of leader Hinako Shibuno.

“Just having fun out there. I think that’s kind of the biggest key, and it’s been a while that I’ve had a great time on the golf course,” Park said, who wasn’t fazed by playing alone. “There is a lot of talking to myself and being stuck with my caddie’s dad jokes.”

Park, a one-time winner on the LPGA Tour and a celebrated amateur, admitted she thought seriously about stepping away from the game during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, she took a two-month break last year.

She tied for 23rd at the JTBC Classic last week, her best result on the LPGA Tour since last June.

“I think last week was the first time I started to enjoy it again,” Park said. “Just in general, like being able to see the spectators again and just having, I think, this new-found passion for golf.”

Park sits at 8 under through two rounds at Mission Hills Country Club and is tied with defending champion, Patty Tavatanakit and Jennifer Kupcho.

Shibuno, who is 9 under through 36 holes, made seven birdies on Friday on her way to a 6-under 66.

Nicknamed the Smiling Cinderella, Shibuno won over the golfing world in 2019 when she captured the Women’s British Open in her LPGA Tour debut. That was her first time competing outside of her home country.

Shibuno said through a translator she is a more mature player now versus 2019 and has more shots in her repertoire. If she were to win, she would become the first champion from Japan in the half-century history of this event.

While Shibuno finished strong on Friday, Canadian Brooke Henderson struggled to close for the second day in a row.

Henderson bogeyed her final two holes to shoot a 1-under 71 on Friday. She is at 1 under for the championship and will head into the weekend eight shots back of the lead. Henderson missed a par-saving putt on the par-3 17th and then found the water on the par-5 18th on route to a second straight bogey.

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The closing effort came after she made birdies on Nos. 5 and 16 and was within shouting distance of the midday lead.

There were plenty of questions about Henderson’s game off the tee entering the week after being forced to switch to a shorter driver due to a new rule on club length, but so far her numbers are solid. Henderson has hit 75 per cent of her fairways through two rounds and is averaging 284 yards of distance – more than 10 yards longer than her season-long average. She even hit a highlight-reel approach shot with her driver off the fairway on the par-5 11th. From 260 yards away she landed her ball about 40 feet from the hole and made birdie.

Henderson has finished inside the top 20 at five of the last nine majors she has played and in five tournaments.

Canada’s other entry this week, Maude-Aimée Leblanc, of Sherbrooke, Que., shot a 6-over 78 and missed the 1-over cut line by seven strokes.

Adam Stanley is an Ottawa-based contributor to the Star’s Sports section and the host of golf podcast Next Round’s On Me. Follow him on Twitter: @adam_stanley