FRISCO, Texas – In what must feel like another lifetime, Allie White roomed with Lexi Thompson at an AJGA team event, and they said hello to each other on the range Friday morning at the 2025 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.
As White finished up her round on the par-5 ninth, Thompson was closing out hers nearby on the 18th.
“Don’t blame the bogey on me,” White joked while sitting with Judy Rankin and Grant Boone on Peacock’s Featured Group coverage. While White has moved on from tour life, Thompson is now semi-retired and contending at another LPGA major.
Thompson’s lone bogey of the day came on the difficult par-4 18th, denying her first bogey-free major championship round in three years. Even so, 2-under 70 on the Fields Ranch East course puts her in fine position as the course bakes out even more in the afternoon. Thompson, who’s 2-under for the tournament, might even hold the lead at day’s end as winds gust up to 30 mph with temperatures north of 90.
“It’s a difficult golf course, so it’s a matter of just really trusting your lines and knowing that the wind is going to bring it back,” said Thompson, who is making her seventh start of the season. “And just being happy with pars. This is a good par golf course.”
White, 35, made her second consecutive KPMG Women’s PGA appearance after back-to-back victories at the LPGA Professionals Championship in 2023 and 2024. A second-round 80 won’t have the Lancaster Golf Club (Ohio) director of golf playing the weekend, but she was all smiles in the booth after the round as she talked about her experience.
Thompson’s group was warned and then put on the clock for several holes in the second round. On Thursday, her group waited more than 25 minutes on the tee down the stretch in a round that took six hours.
“We fell maybe a hole behind,” said Thompson of Friday’s round. “I didn’t think that we were playing – I mean, we were playing slow. It took three hours to play the front nine. But it’s a difficult golf course. Pins are tough, and some holes are just really par holes that you can’t really hold greens on too, and some holes you have to pitch out.
“So it’s difficult golf course to play quickly, safe to say.”
Auston Kim also bogeyed her last hole, the par-5 ninth, but still finished with a 72 to sit at 1 under for the championship. Like Thompson, Kim said the turnaround from the late finish on Thursday was especially tough. She got to bed around 10 p.m., and her alarm went off at 4:30 a.m.
“I think just not getting enough sleep unfortunately, and then the heat, waking up super early and dealing with twice as much wind and firmer greens and longer rough was just a really big challenge today,” said the former Vanderbilt standout.
Kim planned to get a cold shower and a cold plunge after the round to bring down her body temperature, followed by a nap.
“I think I’ll be a little bit later tomorrow so that will definitely help,” said Kim. “Just trying to be horizontal for as long as I possibly can.”
Yealimi Noh began the day two shots back but bogeyed three of her last five holes to shoot 74 and fall to even par for the championship.
