Home favorite Park shares lead in South Korea

INCHEON, South Korea — The Korea Championship has a home player atop the leaderboard after Park Sang-hyun‘s 25-foot putt for birdie to finish his second round Friday.

Park shot a 3-under 69 and joined Yannik Paul (68) at 8 under overall at Jack Nicklaus Golf Club.

“I want to prove that Korean players can have a chance to win on the [European] tour,” Park said. “I think other players feel the same, and that is why a lot of Korean players are playing well at the moment.”

Antoine Rozner started the second round with a four-stroke lead after an opening 63 but couldn’t follow that up, shooting 74 — including a triple-bogey 7 at the par-4 No. 9 after going out of bounds — to drop into a share of third place with Mike Lorenzo-Vera (65). The two Frenchmen are one shot behind the leaders.

“It’s never easy to come back after such a low score as yesterday, but I felt pretty good,” Rozner said. “And to be honest, after seven holes, I was hitting some amazing shots, and it didn’t turn out the way I wanted to.”