Staff WriterIn the picturesque French Alps, where the greens undulate like a jazz solo and the lake mirrors the nerves of major championship golf, Somi Lee leads the way at the Amundi Evian Championship with a swagger that suggests she’s not just here for the scenery.
After carding a sublime second-round 65, Lee finds herself atop the leaderboard at 10-under-par heading into the weekend.
Her round? A medley of one eagle, six birdies, and just two bogeys—a tidy bit of golf on a course that can turn your confidence to compost in the space of a hole.
“I think first this course is so beautiful,” said Lee. “But, you know, green is so tricky… Just distance is perfect. Feel like it’s good.”
Feherty translation: She’s seeing the lines, feeling the vibe, and giving the middle finger to precision paranoia.
The Amundi Evian Championship isn’t just a test of ball-striking; it’s an annual survival course where veterans, rookies, moms, and amateurs all come out swinging.
And this year’s cut line at +2 sees 74 players move on, with an average age of 27.
That includes 18-year-old amateur Maria Jose Marin, the tournament’s youngest competitor, and 36-year-old Jeongeun Lee5, still proving age and endurance go hand in hand if your swing holds up.
Lee, who sits sixth in the Race to CME Globe rankings, is enjoying the kind of season most pros would trade a few wedge shafts for. One win, four top-10s, and $1.3 million in the bank already—her numbers speak louder than her quotes.
This is just her third crack at the Amundi Evian; she missed the cut in 2023 and finished a respectable T17 last year. That’s the thing about this course: it teaches, it punishes, and sometimes—just sometimes—it lets you lead.
Hot on her heels is Australia’s Grace Kim, who added a 3-under 68 to her opening round for a two-day total of 133. “You have to know how this course is going to bite at you,” said Kim, who now holds her lowest-ever 36-hole score in a major. “Again, anything can happen, especially on this golf course.”
And she’s right—the fairways here have broken more hearts than a Hollywood scandal.
Jennifer Kupcho sits solo third at 8-under, mixing seven birdies with five bogeys en route to a 69. For those keeping score at home, her 134 total is the best she’s ever managed after two rounds at a major.
“I think just in general I’m a good ball-striker,” Kupcho said. “Having played two different ways during my life I’ve kind of learned how to do both.” In other words, she’s as adaptable as a Swiss Army knife with a short fuse.
And then there’s the amateur story everyone loves—Lottie Woad. The English phenom is T12 at five-under, and she’s now sitting pretty on 19 LEAP points in the LPGA’s Elite Amateur Pathway.
One more point—achievable with a top-25 finish—and she punches her ticket to LPGA membership. “Now I can play a little bit more freely over the weekend and just try to get that other one,” Woad said. With nerves steadier than some pros, she’s already acting like she belongs.
Among the 74 players teeing it up this weekend, the talent is undeniable. Collectively, they’ve tallied 139 LPGA Tour wins, 67 LET wins, 206 victories across both tours, and 19 major championships.
Nelly Korda leads the pack with 18 total wins, while Minjee Lee holds the major edge with three.
Six former Amundi Evian Championship winners remain in the field—Celine Boutier, Ayaka Furue, Brooke Henderson, Hyo Joo Kim, Jin Young Ko, and Minjee Lee—each with scars and souvenirs from this course.
And if you enjoy a feel-good subplot, Azahara Munoz—the lone LPGA mum to make the cut—is still battling away like motherhood only added loft to her game.
Yan Liu, on the other hand, found herself on the wrong end of a two-shot slow-play penalty on No. 7, proving once again that the only thing slower than the greens at Evian is the rules committee’s patience.
With the weather behaving, the weekend at the Amundi Evian Championship promises drama, birdies, and maybe a dash of chaos. The course record books—highlighting Jeongeun Lee6’s 36-hole score of 127 in 2021 and In Gee Chun’s eye-watering 72-hole 263—might stay intact. But with the field as deep and diverse as ever, don’t bet against someone making a charge.
One thing’s certain—Evian’s charm is disarming, but its challenge is very real. Just ask Somi Lee, who’s making it look easier than it is.
