If tendencies repeat themselves in 2016, the field in the 4th Women’s Porter Cup will have its hands full on Friday with Princess Superal. The Cavite (Phillipines) resident followed her opening 72 with 70, then watched as first-round leaders Jaclyn Lee (68) and Naomi Ko (69) came back to the field with 76s. In 2015, Superal shot the third-best, day-three score (68) to move up to 7th place. If Superal goes into the 60s again tomorrow, her competitors will be hard-pressed to keep up.
The Niagara Falls country club course is challenging players more in 2016. Two greens, the 5th and 8th, were completely redone and present unique, previously-unseen undulations. In addition, the bunkering around those putting surfaces has been reworked and is now grander and more punitive. In 2015, the 36-hole leader was four strokes lower than Superal, and the winning score was 205, or eight under par. To match that number, Superal would have to shoot 63 tomorrow. In historic context, only one woman has shot that number and she (Brooke Henderson) won the 2nd WPC and is currently leading the Women’s PGA Championship as a professional!
Local leaders Chelsea Dantonio and Cat Peters also struggled in round two. Rounds of 81 and 80, respectively, dropped both golfers to 156 through 36 holes, a full 14 strokes off the lead. Marah Penn of Hamburg and Victoria Parker of Lewiston had the low local round of the day, with 77. The first trio of the day tees off at 8 AM on Friday, with the leaders slated to peg their ball at 12:30.
