Lucas Glover stays on top at Barbasol Championship

Nicholasville, Kentucky: Lucas Glover shot a 68 on Friday to maintain a two-shot lead at the Barbasol Championship in Nicholasville, Ky.
At 13-under 131 through two days at Keene Trace Golf Club, Glover has a comfortable but not insurmountable margin over Adam Long (67 Friday), Sweden’s Vincent Norrman (67) and England’s Daniel Brown (68).
After a torrid 63 put him atop the leaderboard after one round, Glover had more work to do Friday. Starting on the back nine, he had 11 pars and two birdies through his first 13 holes before collecting three birdies and his lone bogey of the day over the final five.
“It was a little scrappy today, but hung in there, got around through 4 and knew I had a couple par-5s I could to get to and just said, ‘Let’s just grind this out,’ and I did,” Glover said. “Pleased with the end result.”
The former US Open champion, now 43, has four career wins on the PGA Tour. He went 10 years between his last two wins (2011 and 2021).
Friday marked his 10th straight round on tour in the 60s.
“This time of year on tour when it’s warm, scores usually get low because things get soft, especially the greens, so you know automatically you’ve got to be more aggressive,” Glover said.
Long and Norrman each got to 67 by carding seven birdies and two bogeys, while Brown had six and two, respectively. Norrman and Brown have yet to win on the PGA Tour, but Long had his breakthrough on tour when he won the 2019 Desert Classic.
“Going up against some of the best players in the world here, so going to have to keep the pedal down, make a lot of birdies and keep attacking,” said Long, who added that he is playing through neck pain.
The Barbasol is staged as an alternate event opposite the Genesis Scottish Open, where most of the best players in the world are tuning up for next week’s Open Championship.

Birdie burst propels Park to LPGA lead, Corpuz in pursuit
Washington: Annie Park’s eight birdies included a sizzling string of five in a row on Friday as the American seized a two-shot lead at the US LPGA Dana Open in Sylvania, Ohio.
Park, whose lone LPGA victory came at the ShopRite Classic back in 2018, matched her career-low round with an eight-under 63 at Highland Meadows, her 11-under par total of 131 putting her two clear of a trio of players headed by newly crowned US Women’s Open champion Allisen Corpuz.
“I just had some really good shots out there,” Park said. “Recovered well from bad shots. Overall I played really well today.”
Park teed off on 10 and, after a birdie at 13, she put together five straight birdies from the 18th through the fourth.