THE FUSE

Tournament of Champions - round two leaderboard

-8 L Woad (Eng), L Ko (NZ); -7 A Yang (Kor), N Hataoka (Jpn); -6 Y-M Hwang (Kor), L Lindblad (Swe), A-L Kim (Kor); -5 C Wannasaen (Tha), N Korda (US), A Thitikul (Tha)

England's Lottie Woad hit a three-under-par 69 on day two of the Tournament of Champions to share the lead with three-time major winner Lydia Ko.

The 22-year-old, who only turned professional last year and was invited to play at the season-opening LPGA tournament in Orlando, built on her opening round of 67 to jointly lead with New Zealander Ko on eight under.

Olympic Champion Ko, 28, added a 67 on Friday to Thursday's 69 round the Lake Nona course.

Woad, who hit four birdies and one bogey, said: "I looked at the leaderboard quite a lot because I was getting annoyed.

"The pins were probably a little trickier, so [there] weren't as many birdies as [Thursday], so I just had to keep giving myself chances."

Ko, meanwhile, is bogey-free through 36 holes but the 2024 Women's Open champion said she would never call the Florida course "easy", adding: "I think this golf course changes a lot depending on how the conditions are."

Woad, who is ranked 11th in the world and Ko, who is sixth, are one shot ahead of South Korea's Amy Yang and Japan's Nasa Hataoka, who was leader after the first round.

The world's top two ranked players, Thailand's Jeeno Thitikul and Nelly Korda of the United States, are three off the pace after carding rounds of 72 and 71 respectively.

England's Charley Hull is five shots off the pace after a second round score of 71.

Woad was an amateur when she won her first Ladies European Tour title at the Women's Irish Open in July, then secured her second tour victory at the Women's Scottish Open on her professional debut three weeks later.