Steady play keeps Alison Lee tied atop Rolex leaderboard

Two rounds down and two rounds to go, there has been just one constant at the AJGA Rolex Girls Junior Championship at Dalhousie Golf Club: Alison Lee.

Lee, No. 1 in the Polo golf rankings entering the tournament, held the title of co-leader after the first round. She retained that status after round two, merely switching her partner atop the leaderboard from 15-year-old Allisen Corpuz of Hawaii to 18-year-old Casey Danielson of Wisconsin.

Lee, who will be a freshman at UCLA in the fall, was the epitome of consistency Wednesday, when 280 bogeys and 70 "others" were dispersed among the field of 72.

The 18-year-old, seeking her third major AJGA title and first Girls Junior Championship in her sixth and final attempt, was the only player in the field to avoid a bogey.

Lee started the day at 3-under par after an opening round 69, and the only direction she headed was deeper into negative territory before stalling.

Lindsey McCurdy, of Kyle, Texas, lines up a put on the eighth green.

She collected her only two birdies over the first nine holes of her round, which started at No. 10, to go to 5-under.

"I'm happy with my round because I shot 2-under, so that is pretty good, but I mean no matter how well you shoot, you can always [do] better, and that's how I feel about my round today," Lee said.

The feeling of leaving a few shots on the course applied more to her final holes, where she ticked off pars over the entire front nine in a variety of manners -- from missed short birdie putts to fairly undemanding up-and-downs from just off the green.

"All day I was pretty steady," Lee said. "I did miss a lot of birdie putts, but I didn't make too many mistakes."

Her consistency served as a contrast to some wild rides encountered by others in the field.

Maria Fassi, of Pachuca, Argentina reacts to her approach shot on the 10th hole during the Rolex Girls Junior Championship on Wednesday. Fassi had a (Adam Vogler)

Casey Danielson, of Osceola, Wis., had the day’s best round with a 4-under 68 that pulled her into a tie for the lead with Alison Lee after two rounds of the AJGA Rolex Girls Junior Golf Championship at Dalhouse Golf Club in Cape Girardeau. Both stand at 5-under par heading into today’s third round. (Amanda Herrington ~ Special to the Missourian)

During the run of pars, Lee witnessed a hole-in-one by playing partner Karen Chung, who also had a birdie and two bogeys over the nine-hole span. Chung proved steady overall with her second consecutive round of 71 to end the day in fourth place, three strokes off the lead.

The ace on the 162-yard hole reinvigorated Chung, who started the day two shots off the lead and was treading water with three birdies and three bogeys to that point.

"I had a pretty tough first nine, so I wanted something that would switch up my round a bit, and that completely did it for me," Chung said with a smile.

Chung hit within inches of the flagstick on her approach shot on the following hole for a tap-in birdie to move to 4-under, one stroke behind Lee and Danielson at the time, but closed her up-and-down round with bogeys on Nos. 8 and 9.

The bouncy ride by Chung, who is from New Jersey and will play for USC this fall, made Lee's steadiness look extraordinary.

"She was like that yesterday too," Chung said. "If people compare my round to her round, I'm all over the place."

There was also the erratic round of 72 by former co-leader Corpuz, who countered five bogeys with five birdies.

"Definitely not as good as yesterday," said Corpuz of her roller-coaster round that left her in third place, two shots off the lead.

And there was the meteoric rise by 16-year-old Texan Maddie Szeryk, who rattled off a career-best five consecutive birdies in her first seven holes before cooling off with three bogeys and two double-bogeys. A late birdie left Szeryk with a 73 and in fifth place, four shots off the lead.

"It was a great front nine," said Szeryk, who chipped in twice for birdie during the run that helped her make the turn at 4-under 32.

But it was Danielson who literally turned into Lee's biggest pursuer.

Danielson started her round on No. 10 right behind Lee's group, two strokes off the lead. She proceeded to roll off three consecutive birdies after opening with a par. She moved into a tie for the lead at 5-under with a birdie at the par-4 16th, but fell back with bogeys on Nos. 17 and No. 1, both par 4s.

She stopped the bleeding on the par-4 third hole, sinking about a 10-foot birdie putt.

"I was 4-under and then I had those two bogeys, so I didn't have the momentum going, so that putt kind of changed the momentum," Danielson said.

She then rolled in a par-saving eight-footer on No. 4 before sinking a downhill 20-footer for birdie on the par-3 5th to return to 5-under for the tournament, even with Lee.

Danielson, a four-time state high school champion from Wisconsin bound for Stanford, credited her older brother Charlie, a two-time Wisconsin state champion, with putting advice she received via a text message Tuesday evening.

"'Don't guide it and go with your feel,'" Danielson said about the message from her brother, who was in Pennsylvania preparing for a tournament. "I did that today, and it worked. And it took kind of the pressure off, so I'm going to have to thank him for that."

She then dialed in her 8-iron on the par-5 7th, knocking a shot from 130 yards to within a foot and a tap-in birdie to move into the lead at 6-under.

Danielson gave the shot back with a bogey on the par-3 8th to return into a tie with the steady Lee.

"I hope to shoot even better tomorrow, because I know I can," Danielson, who had the low round of the day with a 4-under 68, said. "Just eliminate some mistakes that I made today. I think I can go lower tomorrow."