Golf: Kiwis hold on amid Koreans' birdie blitz

Lydia Ko led the way for the Kiwis. Photo / Christine Cornege

The New Zealand team fired a 4-under 140 to move up the leaderboard after the second round of the World Women's Team Championship for the Espirito Santo Trophy in Argentina yesterday.

The second youngest player in the field, Lydia Ko, 13, led the way for the Kiwis with a 3-under 69 with Cecilia Cho shooting a one-under 71, while the leader, Caroline Bon, had the non-counting 78.

New Zealand are in 15th place on even par after two rounds, only four shots off the top 10 with the new leaders now the Queen Sirikit Cup champions Korea.

They fired an Espirito Santo record of 16-under for their two best counting scores at the par-72 Buenos Aires Golf Club, which shattered the record for a single round of 134, set by the US, in the second round in 1998.

New Zealand had a chance to make a significant inroad on the leaderboard when Cho worked her way to 5-under with four holes to play.

However, she bogied the 15th and 16th holes and made a double bogey on the final hole to finish on one-under, said team captain Libby Steele.

"We played a lot better today. Yesterday we put the ball into some good positions and got ourselves into good scoring on the front nine. We could not quite take advantage on the final few holes, which was disappointing.

"Today Lydia and Cecilia in particular did well and got some rewards. Cecilia ran out of energy and that proved costly for her and for us. We will work on that tomorrow for sure," she said.

"Hydration and nutrition are really important in the heat here. Tomorrow we are in the top half of the field so we are playing with strong nations which will be excellent, and we are back on Buenos Aires where we played well today."

The women were also boosted with the arrival of the men's team for next week's Eisenhower Trophy event. The newcomers supported the girls during their round.

"The Koreans showed that you can make major moves in this format and we need to continue to work hard and take our chances."

Cho started superbly yesterday with birdies at the first, sixth, ninth, 10th and 11th holes before fading late in her round, while Ko, the second youngest in the field, bogied the fifth, eagled the sixth and made two more birdies coming home in her excellent three-under 69.

Bon could not repeat her first round efforts yesterday, struggling with five bogies and a double bogey on the demanding Buenos Aires course.

Korea led the way yesterday with a nine-under 63 by Ji-Hee Kim and 65 by Jung-Eun Han to jump to 15-under par overall to claim a one-shot advantage over first-round leaders South Africa with a further three shots back to Germany in third.

New Zealand are paired with Ireland and Spain in today's important third round.