Stanford soars into lead in Hawaii

Oahu, HI (SportsNetwork.com) - Angela Stanford fired an 8-under 64 on Friday to grab the lead after two rounds of the LPGA LOTTE Championship.

Stanford, a five-time winner on the LPGA Tour, finished 36 holes at 8-under- par 136. She tied for 12th at this event in 2012.

Hometown favorite Michelle Wie carded a 5-under 67 to move into second place at minus-7 at Ko Olina Golf Club.

So Yeon Ryu and Hyo-Joo Kim, who both shared the first-round lead with Se Ri Pak, managed 2-under 70s in round two. They were joined in third place at 6- under-par 138 by Cristie Kerr (66) and women's world No. 1 Inbee Park (68).

Pak posted a 71 and shares seventh place at minus-5 with Ha-Na Jang (69).

Stanford, who has two top-10s and two missed cuts in her last four starts, parred the first two holes before catching fire.

The Texas native knocked her approach to tap-in range on the third. She followed with another birdie on the fourth, then converted an 8-foot birdie effort on the fifth.

Stanford also birdied the sixth and seventh to make it five in a row. She followed that with three straight pars.

At the 11th, Stanford kicked off another run of birdies. She drained a 20- footer on the 12th to make it two in a row and capped the run with birdie on the par-5 13th. That moved Stanford to 8-under.

Stanford finished her bogey-free round with five consecutive pars.

"It was nice to have today because I've had these stretches where I've played good in a round and then I'll make a bogey or two and kind of lose my focus," said Stanford. "So it was nice when I had a couple long par putts to make or when I had to get up-and-down, I did. It was nice to be in that zone all day."

Wie, who played two groups ahead of Stanford, opened with a birdie on the first. After five pars in a a row, Wie converted a birdie chance on No. 7.

The 24-year-old made it two in a row as she also birdied the par-3 eighth. Wie reeled off four straight pars from the ninth.

Wie birdied the 13th and 14th, both par-5s, to reach 7-under par. She parred the last four holes to wrap up a bogey-free round.

"It was still windy, but not crazy windy as it was yesterday afternoon. I'll take 5-under par," Wie stated. "I knew I could have made a couple more birdies out there on the last couple of holes, but I'll take it."

NOTES: This is the 12th time Stanford has owned a piece of the 36-hole lead ... She won four of the previous 11 times she was in this position, with two of those four wins coming in 54-hole tournaments ... Natalie Gulbis and Haley Millsap withdrew due to injuries, while Vicky Hurst was disqualified for signing an incorrect scorecard after the first round, and Xiyu Lin was disqualified during round two due to an infraction of Rule 20-7 ... The cut line fell at 4-over-par 148 with 77 players moving on to the weekend ... Belen Mozo, Ai Miyazato, Brittany Lang, Brittany Lincicome and Anna Nordqvist were among those that missed the cut.