Wichanee Meechai was the latest surprise at a U.S. Women’s Open full of surprises. She started with four straight birdies on Friday to tie her lowest score of the week with a 3-under 67 and move into the lead by two strokes in a weekend when Nelly Korda is absent.
Meechai is a 31-year-old Thai player whose only victory recognized by the women’s world ranking came nine years ago at the Taiwan LPGA. She has played in 20 major tournaments but has never finished in the top 10.
She was five strokes behind Andrea Lee but fell back to two strokes after five holes, but Meechai stabilized with two birdies in the final six holes to finish at four-under 136, two strokes behind Lee and one of only two other players to finish under par.
Former Women’s British Open champion Minjee Lee (69) and Yuka Sasao (71) are three strokes apart at Lancaster Country Club.
“I feel like I don’t get as many birdies on the easier courses. I’m not that type of guy,” Meechai said, trying to explain his 36-hole lead at a major. “I like it when you have to think harder, when you have to land it in shorter distances and when you have to be patient.”
It worked perfectly for the first four holes, with all of his birdie putts being within six feet.
“I just picked the shorter clubs and hit them hard,” she said.
The week began with the surprise announcement that Lexi Thompson would retire from a full schedule at the end of the year, after her 18th and likely final U.S. Women’s Open came to an early end with rounds of 78-75.
Korda will return to his home state of Florida and miss the cut for the first time in nearly a year.
Korda got a little revenge on the par-3 12th hole, where he hit the ball into the water three times Thursday, scoring a career-worst 10 strokes and finishing with an 80. This time the pin was behind him instead of in front, and he missed his fat 8-iron and the golf ball looked certain to roll into the water.
Her ball was blocked by a clump of grass, and she jabbed a 20-foot pitch for par, smiling and playfully swearing as she turned toward the green.
“I would have liked to get a birdie on that hole to get revenge, but par was good enough,” she said.
She should have saved those words for golf. Korda, who came into the Women’s Open having won six of her previous seven tournaments, reeled off three straight birdies after the first nine holes to stay within the cut.
But she didn’t hit the ball well off the tee or on the fairways, had just four birdie chances on the back nine and finished with a 70 to miss the cut by two strokes.
“When I made those three birdies in a row I knew I wanted to qualify,” Korda said. “I felt like I was in danger of qualifying, but I just couldn’t do anything down the stretch.”
Rose Chan, Lydia Ko, Brooke Henderson and defending Women’s Open champion Alisen Corpuz also missed the cut.
Among the remaining players was 15-year-old Asterisk Tully, whose first name means “little star” in Greek. She shot 15 par in her round of 71 and was in a group that included U.S. Women’s Amateur champion Megan Shofill at 1-over 141.
Li’s even more impressive play came midway through the round, when the Stanford University graduate found himself on the ropes and in a bunker on the 10th hole of the round, but his shot rolled behind the pin for eagle.
Lee then scored three straight birdies and quickly fell two strokes behind Meechai in the group behind him. He three-putted from 30 feet for bogey on the fifth hole and then couldn’t save par in a bunker on the par-3 eighth hole.
She will be in the final group on Saturday, ahead of Minjee Lee and Saso, who have far more experience in handling such a tough test.
Minjee Lee, who won two majors, including the Women’s Open at Pine Needles two years ago, made consecutive bogeys on the turn but played without an error the rest of the way, while Saso, who won the Women’s Open at Olympic Club in 2021, played her final 12 holes without a bogey to bounce back from a shaky start.
Most tellingly, when Saso was asked about his best shot and Lee about the shot he would like to take back, they both had to look at the scoring device with the scorecard on it and refresh their memory of the round they had just completed.
That’s the kind of golf that comes out in the Women’s Open, especially on a traditional course like Lancaster: It’s about playing hard, getting to the next hole and not doing anything that will ruin your round.
And Meechai is hilariously self-deprecating about how he plans to tackle the test.
“I’m not a very confident person,” she said. “I can be like 1 under and the next day I can be like 8 over, so I think about missing the cut. It’s easy for me. The hardest thing is not to think about it, so that’s what makes me nervous.”
Two other amateurs were among the 75 players who qualified at 8-over 148. One of them was Adela Chernosek of France, a junior at Texas A&M University who won the NCAA title two weeks ago. She started with a 69 and nearly missed the cut with an 80, but on the final hole her chip shot hit the pin from just short of the green and, instead of rolling down the fairway, landed two feet away for par.
