Staff WriterThe FM Championship might as well have been played on Noah’s Ark, given the biblical rain and thunder delays that plagued Friday.
But amid the stop-start chaos, Sei Young Kim surged to a commanding lead at -14, carding back-to-back 65s to put herself in pole position heading into the weekend.
It wasn’t easy. Play was suspended three times on Friday due to thunderstorms, before finally being called for darkness at 7:15 p.m.
The second round resumed at 7:01 a.m. on Saturday, and by then, the course was softer, the greens were receptive, and Kim pounced.
“Yeah, I played a couple of holes yesterday. I want to play as much as I can do, but the weather is getting dark so we couldn’t play,” Kim said. “We can play only four holes.
And then we woke up really early morning, like 4:30, and warm up a little bit. So when I standing on the course, course is really clear and then greens are very clean… I was able to attack the pin. Especially these greens like a lot of release.”
Kim, the Rolex No. 33, hit 13 of 14 fairways, 14 greens in regulation, and needed just 26 putts. It was the sort of clinical, aggressive golf that brought her 12 LPGA titles, and she’ll be hoping it finally delivers her first win since 2020.
Chasing Pack: Wang, Zhang and Sagstrom
Miranda Wang sits three shots back at -11 after a brilliant round that saw her rack up seven birdies. “My first time in this position, but I’m not unfamiliar with the leaderboard.
I will do my best in the weekend and this year we have really strong rookies coming in,” Wang said. “It’s really competitive. I just want to keep up with the best.”
Rose Zhang delivered the round of the tournament so far with a bogey-free 64, vaulting herself into third at -10. The Stanford student is balancing academia with life on the LPGA Tour, and she admitted it hasn’t been simple.
“I think at the end of the day it’s something I want to do, it’s something that I want to gain for myself,” Zhang said. “It requires a lot of patience and dedication, reliance on people around you, but also yourself.
So I will say it hasn’t been very easy, but it’s something that I would do all over again, even though it’s quite painful.”
Madelene Sagstrom is a shot further back after a bogey-free 66, riding out the storm delays with a bit of patience and dry Scandinavian humour. “I was like, let’s just be a bit more conservative, play to the centre of the greens and just kind of build the momentum up. Hit some lovely shots and lovely putts and was like, well, maybe I should have done this the first time,” Sagstrom said.
Big Names in the Mix
The FM Championship cut was set at -2, with 74 players making it through. Among them: defending champion Haeran Ryu (-6, T17), who owns multiple scoring records at the event, and FM Ambassador Megan Khang (-4, T31), who steadied her second round after a scrappy opener.
Other standouts include:
- Brooke Henderson (-5, T25), fresh off her win at the CPKC Women’s Open.
- World No. 1 Jeeno Thitikul and No. 2 Nelly Korda (both -7, T9).
- Major winners Minjee Lee (-6, T17), Mao Saigo (-2, T56) and AIG Women’s Open champion Miyu Yamashita (-7, T9).
- Sponsor invite Megha Ganne (-2, T56), the reigning U.S. Women’s Amateur champion.
Consistency, Family, and Junior Golf Lessons
Plenty of voices are making themselves heard in this FM Championship. Andrea Lee (-8, T5) praised her steady form: “Yeah, I’m really proud of this season so far… Hopefully one of these tournaments we’ll come out on top.”
Azahara Muñoz, also at -8, had her young son Lucas cheering her on. “It’s really nice. It’s something that I’ve always wanted to do,” she said. “Hopefully one day he’ll remember being out here and watching me play.”
Hannah Green, meanwhile, kept it simple when asked by a junior reporter: “Sometimes I think when I was a kid I was really fearless and just wanted to have fun, so trying to embrace that.”
Looking Ahead
The FM Championship has been as much about umbrellas as birdies so far, but the leaderboard is stacked, the conditions are changing, and Sei Young Kim is back in a position she knows well. The last time she led after 36 holes, she finished runner-up. The time before that, she won.
With storms, stars, and rookies all colliding, the last rounds promises fireworks—weather permitting.
