Stacy Lewis is the only American left at the LPGA's Sybase Match Play Championship after Friday's second round.
Stacy Lewis
16 players remain at Hamilton Farm Golf Club, and it comes as little surprise that Lewis has outlasted her fellow countrywomen, having regularly outperformed them so far this season.
Eleven of the 20 seeded players in the 64-woman field have been eliminated so far. Defending champion Suzann Pettersen, No. 4 ranked Ai Miyazato and Americans Paula Creamer, Brittany Lincicome and Michelle Wie all lost in the first round and on Friday it was the turn of Cristie Kerr, Jiyai Shin and Karrie Webb to join them.
Not that Lewis doesn't still face some tough competition. The top two ranked players, Taiwan's Yani Tseng and Na Yeon Choi both survived the second round, Tseng winning 3&1 over American Katie Futcher and Choi a 3&2 winner over fellow South Korean Jenny Shin.
Lewis won the first four holes on the way to a comfortable 4&3 win over Germany's Sandra Gal, but knows she still has a lot of work left to do, despite some high profile names in her bracket already being out of the tournament.
"I don't think Suzann (Pettersen) losing really opens things up for me," said Lewis. "I think I've got a lot of tough matches still ahead of me, and there were a lot of upsets yesterday, so it just shows what match play is. Anything could happen on any given day."
Lewis faces Sun Young Yoo in the third round, another talented Korean. Yoo also won this event two years ago.
"Sun Young's having a great year, she's playing really well," said Lewis, adding that being the top-ranked American in the game is a big motivating factor for her.
"That's the reason I go out and play every day," Lewis said. "I think I've probably been playing as good, if not better, than a lot of the American players and I haven't got noticed yet, and that's what drives me every day to go out and get better and to keep playing and to keep winning matches. I think if you're up on that leaderboard enough and you win enough golf tournaments, people will start to take notice.
"I haven't been noticed, but it's driving me every day."
In other results, relative unknown English golfer Jodi Ewart's dream run continued on Friday. She followed up her upset win over Suzann Pettersen in the first round with another solid 3&1 win over Swede Sophie Gustafson.
Second Round Results
Sophie Gustafson (Swe) Lost to Jodi Ewart (Eng) 3 & 1
Karrie Webb (Aus) Lost to Azahara Munoz (Spa) 2 & 1
Stacy Lewis bt Sandra Gal (Ger) 4 & 3
Sun Young Yoo (Kor) bt Jessica Korda 2 up
Yani Tseng (Tai) bt Katie Futcher 3 & 1
Haeji Kang (Kor) Lost to Candie Kung (Tai) 1 down
Karine Icher (Fra) bt Jennifer Johnson 2 & 1
Julieta Granada (Par) bt Ryann O'toole 6 & 5
Katherine Hull (Aus) bt Mariajo Uribe (Col) 1 up
So yeon Ryu (Kor) bt Mina Harigae 3 & 2
Cristie Kerr Lost to Vicky Hurst at the 19th
Angela Stanford bt Eun Hee Ji (Kor) 4 & 3
Na Yeon Choi (Kor) bt Jenny Shin 3 & 2
Inbee Park (Kor) Lost to Morgan Pressel 3 & 2
Jiyai Shin (Kor) Lost to Anna Nordqvist (Swe) 2 & 1
Amy Yang (Kor) bt Natalie Gulbis 5 & 4
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