Brooke Matthews isn’t taking anything for granted in her second go-round as an LPGA member.
After a prolific college career at Arkansas, Matthews earned LPGA status back in 2022, but she lost her card and grinded on the Epson Tour last season, rebuilding her confidence and scoring seven top-10 finishes on the feeder circuit. She’s back in the big leagues now and better than ever this year.
The 27-year-old fired her LPGA-best round during the second day of the BMW Ladies Championship in Korea, shooting a 64 and is a shot back of leader Sei Young Kim, who is at 16 under.
“It wasn’t something I was super chasing or anything,” Matthews said of her 64. “Obviously, if it happened, great, but if not, it wasn’t like, oh, my God. It’s exciting and always good to kind of do that at the end of the season and keep trending.”
Matthews had eight birdies to go with 10 pars on Friday, using a smooth putting stroke to get into contention. She’s posted a half-dozen top-25 finishes this season, but has only cracked the top 10 one time, a T-8 at the Lotte Championship earlier this month.
“It’s kind of funny, I didn’t feel very comfortable coming into this week, playing China last week, didn’t really have my best stuff. Even Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday was feeling a little eh but made me go out there and play it shot-by-shot, lower expectations and I feel like I just managed it really well. Just kind of stayed in the moment. Ended up making some putts and racking up some good scores.
“I feel like the putter has been the difference-maker. I feel like I’ve had a lot of good looks, kind of all year but definitely nice to see some go in.”
Rio Takeda and Hyo Joo Kim are three shots off the pace with Nasa Hataoka sitting in fifth at 12 under.
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