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Wichanee Meechai has become the latest surprise at a US Women’s Open filled with them. She started Friday with four straight birdies and matched the week’s low with a 3-under 67 for a two-shot lead in a weekend that will not include Nellie Korda.
Meechai is a 31-year-old Thai whose only win recognized by the women’s world rankings came nine years ago in Taiwan LPGA. She has never finished in the top 10 in her previous 20 major tournament appearances.
She went from five shots ahead of Andrea Lee to two shots back in a five-hole stretch. Meechai steadied himself with two birdies over the final six holes to finish at 4-under 136, two shots ahead of Lee with just two other players under par.
A pair of former Women’s Open champions, Minji Lee (69) and Yuka Sasso (71) were three shots back at Lancaster Country Club.
“I feel like I might not make a lot of birdies on the easier courses. I’m not that guy,” Meechai said, trying to explain his 36-hole lead in the major. “I like it when you have to think a lot, when you have to land it shorter and be patient.”
It worked to perfection on her opening four holes, all birdie putts to 6 feet.
“I just picked the club that’s shorter and hit it hard,” she said.
The week started with a surprise announcement from Lexi Thompson that she will withdraw from a full schedule in the end of the year. Her 18th and likely final US Women’s Open ended early with a score of 78-75.
It will end with Korda returning home to Florida, missing the time portion for nearly a year.
Korda got a little revenge on the par-3 12th, where on Thursday she hit the water three times and made a career-worst 10 en route to 80. This time the pin was in the back, not the front, and she came up so short with a fat 8-iron that it looked certain her golf ball was going to roll back into the water.
It was supported by a patch of grass. She hit the green to 20 feet and holed the par putt, smiled and gave a playful expletive to the green.
“I wanted to make birdie to get revenge for that hole, but it will do,” she said.
He should have saved those words for his golf. Korda, who entered the Women’s Open having won six of her last seven tournaments, reeled off three straight birdies toward the end of the front nine to get within range of the cut.
But she didn’t hit the ball well off the tee or fairway when given the chance. She had just four looks at birdie on the back nine, shot 70 and missed the cut by two.
“When I made those three birdies in a row, I wanted to make the cut,” Korda said. “I knew I was kind of spinning around him and I just couldn’t do anything from the back.”
Also missing were Rose Zhang, Lydia Ko, Brooke Henderson and defending Women’s Open champion Alissen Corpuz.
Among those who stuck around was 15-year-old star Tali – her first name is Greek for “little star” – who had a 15-par round of 71 and was in a 1-over 141 group that included the US women’s champion at amateurs Megan Schofill.
Lee put on a stretch even more impressive than Meechai, hers coming in the middle of the round. The Stanford graduate was on the ropes and in a bunker on No. 1 – her 10th hole of the round – when her putt rolled to the back pin and fell for eagle.
Lee followed with three straight birdies and was suddenly two ahead of Michai in the group behind her. Lee three-footed 30 feet for bogey on No. 5 and failed to save a par from a bunker on the par-3 eighth.
She will be in the final group on Saturday, with Minji Lee and Sasso ahead of them and with much more experience in handling such a harsh test.
Minjee Lee, whose two majors included the Women’s Open at Pine Needles two years ago, made back-to-back putts on the turn and then played error-free the rest of the way. Sasso, the 2021 Olympic Club Women’s Open champion, rallied from a difficult start by going bogey-free in her final 12 holes.
Most tellingly, Sasso was asked to describe her best shot, and Lee asked about one shot she would like to take back. Both had to turn to a scoring terminal displaying their scorecards, needing to recall the rounds they had just completed.
This is the kind of golf that the Women’s Open can generate, especially at a traditional course like Lancaster. It’s about grinding, getting to the next hole and not letting anything derail the round.
And then there’s Meechai, delightfully self-deprecating about how she approaches this test.
“I’m the person who has no confidence at all,” she said. “I’m thinking of missing the cut because I know I can shoot like 1 under and the next day 8 over. It’s so easy for me. Trying not to think about it is the hardest part for me, that’s why I’m so nervous.
Two other amateurs were among the 75 players who carded 8-over 148. One of them was Adela Chernousek of France, a junior at Texas A&M who won the NCAA title two weeks ago. She opened with a 69 and was on the verge of shooting an 80 and missing the corner until her chip hit the pin on her final hole and settled two feet for par instead of rolling off the front of the green back into the fairway.
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