Triple bogey finish slips overnight leader Maria Hjorth down to fifth place

DUBAI, Dec 10 - In Kyung Kim and Amy Yang can''t figure out why the Koreans are calling the shots in women''s golf. Even Michelle Wie, an American of Korean descent, would be at a loss to unlock the secret of their success. Whatever the reason, the trio provided a glimpse of the rising Korean power in golf with a dominating performance on the second day of the Omega Dubai Ladies Masters at the Emirates Golf Club on Thursday.

In Kyung Kim fired a sizzling seven-under-par 65 on the Majlis Course to move atop the leaderboard with a nine-under-par total of after 36 holes. She is followed in second place by Michelle Wie, who shot a tidy 68 to go seven under.

Amy Yang put together a solid round of 70 to share the third place on six under with Spain's Tania Elosegui, who aced the par-3, seventh.

Overnight leader Maria Hjorth's hopes of staying on top were drowned in the huge lake guarding the 18th green. Not once, but twice she hit her approach into the water, a disappointing triple bogey finish which slipped her down to tied fifth on five-under-par 139 along with 2009 British Open champion Catriona Matthew and Paraguay's Julieta Granada.

The day belonged to In Kyung Kim, ranked number 13 in the world. Starting from the 10th, Kim picked up shots at the 12th, 15th, second, fifth, seventh and eighth. She may be visiting Dubai for the first time, but she is joined by a two-time winner of the event on caddie duties.

Terry McNamara worked as Annika Sorenstam's bagman when she won here in both 2006 and 2007. He also caddied for the former world number one at her farewell event in 2008, when she tied for seventh place.

Kim, who is playing on an invitation at the Euro 500,000 event, admitted that his help was invaluable. "I think he has a little different yardage because Annika hits it further than I do. But he won here twice and he won the par 3 event twice. I think I have the right caddie here," she said.

Kim has earned over $2 million since turning pro in 2006. The 21-year-old clinched her first victory on the LPGA at the 2008 Longs Drugs Challenge and in 2009 she beat Se Ri Pak by one stroke to secure her second victory at the State Farm Classic.

She has a putting stroke to die for but said that the key to her round was accurate club selection. "I had the right numbers and had some good shots into the greens. I was very pleased," she said.

Wie teed off late and started the day in a tie for fifth, three shots behind Maria Hjorth of Sweden. After seeing the target set by Kim, she made an early charge and birdied her first three holes.

"I kind of went out there, I saw the scoring was really low and I was like, I have to start out like this, you know. So I just kind of went out there and it kind of worked out," Wie said.

The 20-year-old world number 12, who won her first pro tournament at the Lorena Ochoa Invitational last month, dropped a shot at the sixth hole when her second shot found a bunker. She sank birdie putts on the 10th and 12th holes, before three putting at the 13th for a bogey. She holed a long birdie putt on the 400-yard par-four 14th hole, but missed a four-footer for birdie on 17.

She said: "I missed a couple of short ones out there. Definitely going to work on that today, and hopefully that won't happen tomorrow."

The first round leader Hjorth was tied for the lead with Kim for most of the day until she dropped a shot at the 16th. Just one behind with a hole to go, she twice went into the water short of the green on the par-five 18th hole, resulting in a triple bogey and a round of 73.

"I hit a really good drive, and second shot was a perfect 4 iron. Hit it maybe a little bit heavy. But I think wind was maybe a little bit stronger as well, and you kind of expect it but obviously went in the water, but I took a drop. But a perfect yardage and hit a shot, for some reason, the wind is just so much stronger obviously than I thought and it came up short and spun back again," Hjorth said. "So that's how it is. Of course, it's disappointing to finish off like that, because I played pretty solid again all day today. Just didn't make as many putts as I did yesterday. So we'll see. There's still two rounds to go."

Sophie Gustafson, who leads the LET's Henderson Money List, was still in touch at halfway in a share of 14th at three under par.

The third round will begin at 7.20am on Friday, with the leading pair of Michelle Wie and In Kyung Kim teeing off at 12.24pm.


Ends...