American qualifier Bailey Tardy, ranked 455th in the world, found herself with a two-shot lead at the US Women’s Open after shooting 68 in Friday’s second round at Pebble Beach.
Tardy, who eagled the par-5 sixth on her way to a four-under par round, stands at seven-under for the tournament and has a two-stroke advantage over compatriot Allisen Corpuz and South Korea’s Kim Hyo-joo. The 26-year-old, who finally earned her card for the LPGA this year after competing on the developmental Epson Tour, has struggled in her rookie year, missing five cuts and only once making the top 25.
After she followed up her first round 69 with another strong showing on the challenging California course, she admitted that she almost “forgot” to apply for the qualification event in Minnesota, a gruelling 36 holes in a single day.
“I don’t think anybody likes playing in the US Open qualifiers. I haven’t played in one for a while because I don’t like them,” she said.
“So I think it was just a little bit of procrastination. I knew there was going to be a site that I could sign up. I didn’t know which one to pick. You have a ton. My mom could tell me, ‘You need to sign up, you need to sign up’ and then I just never did. That’s just kind of how it happened. Big ol’ procrastination.”
Still, being familiar with Pebble Beach, having played a number of events on the famous course over the years, Tardy said that while others might be surprised at her position on the leaderboard, she certainly believed.
“Other people maybe not, but I’ve always believed in myself to win any tournament that I enter. I’m good enough to be here, and I’ve been on the LPGA, so I feel like I definitely have the game to hang with the best in the world,” she said.
“It feels great. I haven’t performed great in the previous majors this year, so just to finally be able to throw some good rounds in and finally have everything come together, I feel like I’ve had really good ball-striking days and then terrible putting days, and then I’ll have a great putting day but terrible ball-striking day.