Lauren Coughlin was not to be missed on Saturday at the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship. At least until his 10th hole.
Her day on the back nine, the LPGA Tour veteran opened the second round at Pinnacle Antipolis with nine straight birdies. This is the first time in LPGA history. Her score of 26 is also the record for the lowest 9-hole raw score in LPGA history.
Coughlin’s release gave her the opportunity to break Annika Sorenstam’s LPGA single-round scoring record of 59, set by the PING International Register in 2001, but she was relatively cool on the front nine.
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Coughlin posted just one birdie the rest of the day, on No. 3, but no bogey at all. She “settled” for 10 under 61 days. That moved her up 106 places on the leaderboard, following a 2-over performance in the first round, to a tie for 21st place at 8-under.
In total, Coughlin hit 12 of 13 fairways and made 18 of 18 greens in regulation, with 26 total putts.
Yuna Nishimura now leads the field by five shots at 16-under. She was almost at 63 on Saturday morning to put distance between her and the three-way combination of Auston Kim, Mary Liu and Michelle Zhang for second place at 11-under.
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Coughlin came around on his 34th birthday. She made her LPGA Tour debut in 2017 and has since won three tournaments, most recently at the Aramco Championship in April. She is coming off a strong performance in Team USA’s loss to the 2026 Solheim Cup, playing all five sessions and posting a 3-1-1 record.
