Minjee Lee takes 3-shot lead in LPGA Tour’s Founders Cup

CLIFTON, New Jersey: The only only thing missing from Minjee Lee’s resume this year is a victory and the best scorer on the LPGA Tour took a big step toward that in the second round of the Cognizant Founders Cup.

Lee flirted with the best round on tour this season before settling for a 9-under 63 and a three-shot lead Friday at the halfway point of the event that honors the 13 founding members of the women’s tour. The Australian had a 14-under 130 total at Upper Montclair Country Club.

“Hitting it close really helps you, just like I said before, really just frees you up,” said Lee, who has two top-five finishes in six events. “Even with the short putts, it’s just like a little more confidence boost.”

First-round leader Madelene Sagstrom, Lexi Thompson and Ally Ewing shared second after the round played under a cloudy sky with sporadic light rain less than 10 miles from New York City. Sagstrom had a 70, while Thompson and Ewing had 66s in finishing at 11 under .

Lee got to 10 under with three holes to play but bogeyed the 16th and failed to tie the tour’s low round of 62 by Yuka Saso of Japan in the Honda event in Thailand.

Lee, who entered the week with a scoring averaging of 69.167, tied for second in the HSBC Women’s World Championship in March and shared third in the Los Angeles Open last month.

“Maybe this will be the first one and it’ll kick start the rest of the year,” she said.

Sagstrom, who had a 63 on Thursday, got off to a slow start trying to go low again.

“A lot of things can happen,” Sagstrom said. “A lot of the things can happen to the golf course, the way they set it up and all that. So just giving myself a chance is all I can about myself, and my best today was 2 under, so I was really pleased.”