Staff WriterThe Dow Championship has a rather pleasant habit of making golf look less like a solitary examination and more like a doubles act with yardage books, nerves and the occasional sticker-based reward system.
After two rounds, Polly Mack and Celine Borge sit at the top on 12-under, having delivered a bogey-free second round containing an eagle and eight birdies.
Mack And Borge Find Their Team-Golf Groove
This is the fourth time Mack and Borge have joined forces at the Dow Championship, which is either loyalty, stubbornness, or the rare sporting partnership that actually improves after repeated exposure.
Their record together has had a bit of everything. They finished tied third in 2023, missed the cut in each of the past two seasons, and now find themselves leading or co-leading after a round at this tournament for the first time.
The scorecard had serious teeth. Mack and Borge were the only team in the field to record an eagle across the first two rounds, and their second round passed without a bogey. Their only hole of par or worse all week remains the third hole in round one, where they made a nine — the sort of number that usually arrives wearing heavy boots and refusing to leave quietly.
To their credit, they have not merely recovered from it. They have shoved it into a locker and walked away whistling.
Mack said the familiarity between the pair has made the whole thing feel less complicated, which in team golf is rather the point.
“Yeah, it makes it easy practicing together so we know each other’s game really well. I think over the years we’ve been watching each other grow the game, getting better every year. It’s just kind of fun to watch. So it’s fun out here to see like what comes together from the practices we’ve spent together before. Yeah, it’s just fun knowing each other well and then doing well out here on top of it.”
The Hat Stars Tell Their Own Story
There is also a pleasingly low-tech scoring system at work. No algorithm. No dashboard. No mystical performance metric. Just hats, stars and sparkles.
BORGE: “Yeah, so we get a star or a sparkle for every birdie we get.”
MACK: “Yeah, and like the standouts are more likely the stars, and then the regular birdies are just a sparkle. Yeah, I guess we gathered a lot these last few days.”
It is difficult to argue with the method. Golf is a game forever trying to make itself more complicated, and here are two players apparently reducing it to friendship, execution and accessories. Quite right, too.
Nishimura And Furue Stay Within Touching Distance
One shot behind, Yuna Nishimura and Ayaka Furue sit second at 11-under after a bogey-free second round featuring nine birdies. They had also shot 68 in the alternate-shot format, giving their week a useful foundation before the tournament began to stretch and snarl.
Furue spoke warmly about the comfort of partnering someone with whom she shares a long history.
“We’ve known each other for a long time. Like we were competing when we were as — playing as amateur, so it’s so nice to play with one of the friends out there.”
Nishimura, meanwhile, suggested there will be no wild strategic reinvention just yet.
“As far as tomorrow I think we’re going to go with the same plan as the first day. So not really going to change anything. Fourth day we’re going to have to kind of step it up a notch, so we’ll think about it again and give it a try.”
That is a neat summary of this format. Keep it tidy, keep it friendly, and at some point prepare to press the accelerator until the tyres start complaining.
Korda And Cowan Produce The Round Of The Day
In third at 10-under, Olivia Cowan and Nelly Korda produced the low round of the day, a 10-under effort that included 11 birdies and just one bogey. More impressively, they did not miss a fairway in the second round, which sounds less like golf and more like a polite administrative error by the rough.
The duo had recorded a 70 in the alternate-shot format, but their latest round brought the leaderboard sharply into focus. With Korda involved, any leaderboard tends to feel a little more alert. She brings that familiar combination of calm presence and implied danger, like a sleeping cat near a full glass of water.
Korda said the team format has been a welcome change of rhythm.
“It’s been so much fun, honestly, getting to share the fairways with ‘Liv, our caddies, has been a lot of fun. Last week was a great week, but I think this was a perfect week to kind of back up that week where it’s kind of a little bit more relaxed. So far I’ve been having a lot of fun. Can’t speak for ‘Liv. But it’s been a blast.”
Juli Inkster Adds A Slice Of LPGA History
The leaderboard has its own theatre, but Juli Inkster supplied the historical weight. By making the cut, Inkster became the oldest player to make the cut in LPGA Tour history at 65 years, 11 months and 19 days.
She is playing this week alongside her mentee Angel Yin, which gives the moment a pleasing symmetry: one of the game’s great competitors extending a record while walking alongside another generation.
The previous mark belonged to JoAnne Carner, who made the cut at the 2004 Chick-fil-A Charity Championship hosted by Nancy Lopez at 65 years and 26 days. Carner went on to finish 90th. Inkster has now moved the bar, and not by tiptoeing past it.
There is a particular kind of sporting achievement that does not need fireworks. It simply stands there, quietly, while everyone else realises how absurdly difficult it is.
The Numbers Behind The Leaders
Mack and Borge arrive at this point from different statistical positions, which only adds to the appeal of the partnership.
Celine Borge, ranked No. 239 in the Rolex Rankings, is making her fourth start at the Dow Championship. Her best previous result here came alongside Mack in 2023, when they finished tied third. This season, she has made three cuts in eight starts, with a season-best finish of T56 at the Fortinet Founders Cup.
Her career includes five LPGA Tour top-10 finishes and $1.1 million in official career earnings. She also won the 2020 Norwegian National Golf Championship, joined the Epson Tour in 2019, and finished sixth on the Epson Tour money list in 2022 to earn LPGA membership for the 2023 season.
Mack, ranked No. 66 in the Rolex Rankings, is also making her fourth Dow Championship appearance. Like Borge, her best result here was that T3 finish in 2023. She has made five cuts in eight starts this season and already has one top-10, having finished T4 in her last start at the ShopRite LPGA powered by Wakefern.
Across her LPGA Tour career, Mack has three top-10 finishes and $455.8K in official career earnings. She improved her LPGA Tour status for the 2026 season with a T10 finish at LPGA Q-Series Final Qualifying, and also has experience on the Epson Tour and Ladies European Tour.
Records Still Loom In The Background
The Dow Championship’s scoring records remain an excellent reminder that this event can turn very silly, very quickly.
The 18-hole foursomes record is 62, set by Cheyenne Knight and Elizabeth Szokol in the third round in 2023. In four-ball, the 18-hole mark is 58, shared by Celine Boutier and Yuka Saso from 2024 and Minjee Lee and Jin Young Ko from 2019.
The 36-hole record is 126, held by Ariya and Moriya Jutanugarn from 2021 and Pauline Roussin and Dewi Weber from 2022. The 54-hole record is 192, set by Knight and Szokol in 2023, while the 72-hole tournament record stands at 253, posted by Cydney Clanton and Jasmine Suwannapura in 2019.
Mack and Borge do not need to chase history just yet. They need to keep doing the beautifully unglamorous things that turn team golf into trouble for everyone else: find fairways, trust the partner, take the birdies, avoid the expensive nonsense.
So far, they have done more than enough. The hats have gained a few sparkles, the leaderboard has gained a proper argument, and the Dow Championship has found itself a front-running pair with chemistry, nerve and just enough mischief to make the weekend worth watching.
