Jutanugarn maintains lead at Kingsmill Championship
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Ariya Jutanugarn recovered from a slow start to card an even-par 71 on Friday and maintain the lead at the Kingsmill Championship.
Jutanugarn, who is playing this event on a sponsor's exemption, finished two rounds at Kingsmill Resort & Spa at 7-under-par 135.
Stacy Lewis and Angela Stanford each shot a 3-under 68 to sit in a tie for second place at 6-under.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Sandra Gal (69), Suzann Pettersen (69) and Cristie Kerr (71) share fourth at minus-5, while world No. 6 So Yeon Ryu (71) highlights a group of players tied for seventh at 4-under.
Lewis and Stanford teed off with the early wave and held the clubhouse lead prior to Jutanugarn hitting the course with the second-to-last group.
The 17-year-old opened with a bogey at the 10th, her first, and parred the next five holes before tripping to back-to-back bogeys at the 16th and 17th to fall further down the leaderboard.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}But she then steadied herself during her inward nine, starting with her first birdie of the day at the third.
Another birdie at the fifth brought her back into a tie for the lead with Lewis and Stanford, but it would not be for long as Jutanugarn regained her place atop the leaderboard with a birdie at the seventh.
She ended her up-and-down round with two straight pars to hang on to the lead.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"I hit my irons very good, my driver is like perfect, so I just want to try to fix my putting," said Jutanugarn. "After the front nine, my putting got better, but I still missed a lot of short putts."
Earlier in the day, Stanford started on the back nine and quickly got on the board with a birdie at the 11th and after parring the next three holes, she birdied the 15th to move to 5-under.
She then opened her inward nine with a bogey at the first, but recovered with a birdie at the third and picked up another shot at the seventh to move to 6- under.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Stanford closed with back-to-back pars at the eighth and ninth to stay there.
"I know I wanted to hit it as good as I hit it yesterday, but yesterday I was sad I left some out there," Stanford said after her round. "I felt like I got the most out of today."
Lewis opened with a birdie at the first, but gave that shot back with a bogey at the fourth.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}She would not drop another shot for the rest of her round, however, and capped a string of four straight pars from the fifth with a birdie at the ninth to hit the turn at 4-under.
The world No. 2 later birdied the 13th and 15th to join Stanford atop the leaderboard and closed with three straight pars.
"Definitely would have liked to have made a few more putts, but I think I'm in a really good spot going into the weekend," Lewis said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}NOTES: Jin Young Pak and Jennifer Song withdrew during the second round ... The cut was set at 3-over-par 145, with 78 players advancing to the weekend ... Defending champion Jiyai Shin carded a 1-over 72 on Friday and sits in a tie for 27th place at even-par 142.