With 36 holes done and dusted, Yu Liu kept her spot at the top of the LPGA Final Qualifying (formerly LPGA Q-Series) leaderboard. After carding a first-round 62 – tying the lowest 18-hole score recorded on any course at Final Qualifying since 2021 – Liu shot a 5-under 67 on the Crossings Course to hold a seven-stroke lead over the competition.

“I think overall [my golf] is just pretty solid. I feel like my game is in a pretty good spot coming in. If anything, I feel like I haven't been driving the ball very well. The cold temperature like this, it's really tough to hit it exactly the way I want,” said Liu.

Liu made five birdies in her first eight holes before her only bogey of the day on the par-4 9th to go out in 32. She stalled a bit on the back-nine, carding only one birdie on No. 13, yet she holds a heavy advantage with three rounds ahead of her.

“Yeah, it was a little chaotic coming in. I felt like my game wasn't flowing as nice compared to the holes before,” said Liu on her second round. “The weather condition was really tough today, and the course is playing tough. So just a little bit of loss of concentration resulted in a bogey on that number nine, and I think afterwards, I was getting a little tired if anything, so I think I'm just going to try to get a good night's rest and hopefully keep it going.”

Maria Fassi leads the quartet tied for second at 7-under overall, joining Pauline Rouissin-Bouchard, Manon De Roey and Chisato Iwai. Fassi, who finished the 2024 LPGA Tour season ranked No. 120 on the Race to CME Globe, carded a bogey-free, 6-under 65 on the Falls Course to jump into T2 from T30. The 26-year-old carded six birdies, including four on her final nine holes.

“I think we have a good game plan for both golf courses. I think today, in a way, I think it being a little bit colder helped me. It kind of just made me take smaller swings and keep everything a little bit tighter, and I think it paid off,” explained Fassi. “I putted for birdie inside 15ft probably like 12 or 13 times. I honestly left quite a few out there in a way, but yeah, I'm just extremely happy with the way we played and happy that it's a bogey-free round.”

Epson Tour alum Robyn Choi and Mariel Galdiano sit in a tie for sixth at 6-under, along with 2024 Paris Olympians Miyu Yamashita and Alena Sharp, who is the oldest in the Final Qualifying field at age 43. Isi Gabsa, who started the day in solo second after Thursday’s 64, rounds out the top 10 at 5-under after a 3-over 74 on the Falls Course.

Gigi Stoll moved up the leaderboard after an impressive 6-under 65 on the Falls, settling into a tie for 11th after entering Friday in a tie for 67th. There are now 29 players at T23 or better (1-under), and 67 players in a tie for 59th or better with two rounds to go before the cut to top 65 and ties. The 2018 Chevron champion Pernilla Lindberg is in a tie for 23rd (-1), while 2020 AIG Women’s Open champion Sophia Popov is T48.

Yu Liu Maintains Final Qualifying Lead After 36 Holes

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