Riviera Showed its Teeth But Nelly Bounced Back and Alison Lee Found Her Groove

PACIFIC PALISADES, Ca. — Two rounds down, two more to go. There's nothing quite like cut day at a major championship. Friday at the U.S. Women's Open delivered everything we've come to expect from golf's toughest test: big names climbing the leaderboard, early contenders trying to hold on without faltering, and plenty of players hovering around the cutline grinding to keep their championship weekend hopes alive.

As Riviera continues to reveal its teeth, the fight for the championship is tightening—and the storylines heading into the weekend are only getting better. Here are the moments, movers and questions that defined day two.

With the first round leaderboard leaving a bit to be desired after a lackluster ball striking day for World No. 1 Nelly Korda, the three-time major champion pulled off a gutsy 4-under round of 67 to find herself to two back of the lead.

All eyes are on Korda this week to see if she will finally capture the title that has evaded her the most, but it's apparent she's struggling. Even after a solid round of golf that included five birdies and just one bogey, Korda hit the range immediately after her presser, where she gave credit to big sister Jessica Korda for helping her work through a slight modification.

"Actually, a big shout out to my sister because she helped me. I just tried to strengthen my grip a little bit," she said when asked about what her swing thought was for the second round. "I just kind of keep laying it off at the top and I've been working on it -- gosh, grinding on it for five weeks, and I can't get it. I don't know what I'm doing in my swing, so I just try to strengthen my grip. It felt super funky today, but I just trusted and went with it."

Korda being in contention heading into the weekend is right on cue, but she has her work cut out for her in chasing co-leaders Alison Lee and Ruoning Yin.

Lee who was born and raised in LA, played collegiately at UCLA is searching for her first LPGA Tour win all while focusing on being a new mom to one year old son Levi. She has a pair of wins on the LET, but since joining the Tour in 2015, she's just never quite found herself in the mix as much as she would have hoped. But all those years of frustration can be wiped away with a win this weekend.

"Yeah, I'm not going to lie, it's been very tough. I've gone through a few stages, a few slumps, if you want to call it, in my career, even since I was like 15 years old," Lee shared. "I feel like I've definitely under achieved what I could have done out here on Tour. It's definitely been really frustrating. I'm at a point now where I've truly accepted it, but like I said, that's part of why I want to come back and play. I feel like I was so close so many times. I feel like it's literally sometimes one shot. You just need to be lucky here and there."

Meanwhile Ruoning Yin is looking to double her major championship total after posting back-to-back rounds of 69. The 2023 KPMG Women's PGA champion has shot even par or better in her last six U.S. Women's Open rounds going back to the first round of 2025 at Erin Hills.

Her bestie and World No. 2 Jeeno Thitikul matched her 69, bouncing back from a two-over par round on Thursday. Thitikul sits just four shots back and is in search of her maiden major.

It's a bunched leaderboard, with eight players within one stroke of the lead and 16 players within three strokes. The cut was made at 4 over par, and five amateurs made it to the weekend and they're all names we're all pretty familiar with! Maria Jose Marin, the 2026 ANWA champion is tied at 1-over with Aphrodite Deng and top ranked amateur Kiara Romero. And then a little further back in the pack is 2026 NCAA champion Farah O'Keefe at 3-over and Asterisk Talley at 4-over.

The 156-player field was condensed to just 68, here are some notable names existing Riv early.

Ko battled but it wasn't quite enough, I'd love to see the Hall of Famer hoist this trophy one day.

In her pro debut, Ganne had a local caddie on her bag who also happens to be the go-to looper for comedian Larry David!

After such great energy all week, it's sad to see Wiezy's trip to Riv cut short but this sweet moment on the 18th with her daughter was just too perfect.

After a dominant start to the season, collecting a pair of early wins and a couple of top-10s, I was expecting to see Kim shine, though her track record in LA this year has been pretty spotty, a missed cut at Riv after WD'ing from the JM Eagle back in April is a tough go.

It's back to back MCs for the Swede at the first two majors of the season.

The LPGA's resident cool girl and SoCal native posted rounds of 76-77 in her fourth USWO appearance. Her best finish came at the 2015 Open at Lancaster where she ended T-53.

The mom-to-be played this week 7 months pregnant and took over social media! What an impressive feat to play this course with her baby boy on board. Her due date is for September.

Saturday's coverage begins at 5pm EST on USA and then moves to NBC/Peacock for prime time at 7-10p EST.