Ayaka Furue during the end of the second round at the Evian Championship Saturday.
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The last time the LPGA congregated for a major championship, there were major implications, too. Olympics implications.
The KPMG PGA Championship was the last week LPGA pros could earn qualifying points for the Olympics, and the final day impacted the standings in a massive way. Miyu Yamashita’s final round of 73 — in difficult conditions — allowed her to hold on for a T2 finish and a bunch of world ranking points. She didn’t win that week — losing to Amy Yang by three — but that performance pushed her from 22nd in the world up to 19th, one spot ahead of her fellow countrywoman Ayaka Furue, who had been ranked 20th.
Furue had a solid week on her own, finishing T19, but ultimately fractions of a point behind Yamashita in the world ranking. That meant Furue was fractions of a point behind her in the Olympics qualifying. And fractions of a point away from booking her trip to Paris. Crushingly short of being an Olympian. As we’ve learned in recent weeks, the qualifying for the Olympics may last two years but the final stages can be cutthroat. Furue is essentially an Olympics alternate now, and can only compete for Japan in the event of an injury.
That was June, this is July. Like the men’s circuit, the LPGA has turned to the European portion of its schedule with its fourth major championship of the season at the Evian Championship. The best players in the world are there. There are a ton of world ranking points on offer. For Lydia Ko, for example, a win would book her a place in the Hall of Fame. For Nelly Korda, by comparison, there’s another opportunity to make a major stamp on what is already an historic season.
For Furue, 24, there’s something different altogether: all the retribution you’d want after missing out on the Olympics. She hasn’t missed since the tournament began.
Furue kicked off her week with an opening 65, the round of the day Thursday, six birdies, no bogeys. She followed it on Friday with the same story: six birdies, no dropped shots. And oddly, she’s doing it all on the same side of the course. Thirty strokes on the front, 35 on the back. Through 36 holes — on a bit of a rain-soaked course at the Evian Resort — Furue was the only player to play bogey-free, extending a two-shot lead.
“I was a little bit lucky because a few holes before the delay my shots were not that good,” she said after the second round was postponed to Saturday morning. “Like my tee shot was not that good, so I could just be fresh and then come back here today, this morning. So that was good.”
The course is expected to dry out a bit as the rain gives way to sunshine Saturday, but that hasn’t meant anything different for Furue thus far. She quickly birdied the 2nd hole to continue her near-perfect play. She’s the first player since 2016 to play the first two rounds bogey-free.
A victory this week would not only be quite the bounce-back from Olympic angst — it would also be the end of a bit of a grinding year. Furue is one of four LPGA pros who have played 16 events this year. That’s all but one on the calendar. Considering her eight top 10 finishes, she’s been very close to breaking through, particularly at last month’s ShopRite LPGA Classic, which pushed her into Olympics qualifying contention in the first place. Playing all those tournaments has her ranked third in the season-long Race to the CME Globe, but it also makes her the highest ranked player in that chase without a win. Asked how she plans to keep it going, she offered just 16 words:
“Just focus on my play and like get closer to the pins as much as possible.”
