The first round of the Kroger Queen City Championship was punishing. Only 29 players broke par, and 21 of them barely managed it with 1-under 69s. Three co-leaders carded 4-under 66, three players shot 3-under 67, and two finished at 2-under 70.
The Maketewah Country Club (par 70) in Cincinnati, Ohio, host of the LPGA Tour's 12th event of the season, has been merciless to players. The course softened its cruelty slightly during the second round on Friday (Korea time). Two players carded 6-under 64, one shot 5-under 65, and the number of players under par jumped to 50. Still, competitors complained of thick rough, firm fairways, and severely undulating greens.
That was her first top-10 finish in two years and seven months, since a tie for eighth at the CPKC Women's Open in August 2023. Back then, too, Jeon shot 64 in the second round.
Six Korean players broke par in the first round, and the same number did so in the second. Ko Jin-young is the only Korean to shoot under par in both rounds, sitting in a tie for the lead at 7-under 133. She carded 3-under 67 in the first round and 4-under 66 in the second.
One of the two players who shot the lowest score across the first two rounds, 6-under 64, is Korean: Jeon In-gee, who climbed into a tie for 16th at 2-under 138. Jeon had carded a 4-over 74 in the opening round, leaving her tied for 102nd. After missing the cut in three consecutive events, she faced another crisis. But on this day, she produced a remarkable scorecard with one eagle, six birdies, and just two bogeys for a 6-under 64.
Starting on the 10th hole, Jeon opened with a bogey on the 11th but dazzled with a "3-hole, 4-under" stretch — a birdie on the par-4 13th, an eagle on the par-5 14th, and a birdie on the par-4 15th. After consecutive birdies on the par-3 18th and the par-4 1st, she briefly stumbled with a bogey on the par-3 2nd, but recovered with birdies on the par-4 5th and the par-5 7th to drop more strokes.
Before her recent three straight missed cuts, Jeon finished solo fifth at the Ford Championship.
