golfrewind.com

After 12 holes, Annika is still atop the leaderboard, while many rivals went backward.

In 12 holes, Annika hit 9 greens in regulation. She had 2 putts on each of these, and then for the 3 greens she missed, she got up and down.
12 pars in 12 holes. This is classic US Open golf and has Annika in a great situation.

She has many players for company under par, but most of those haven't started their rounds yet. By the end of the 2nd round, I think there will be very few, if any players joining Annika under par.

Meanwhile, some of Annika's competitors are:
Chisie Kerr +2 after 13
Lorena Ochoa +3 after 14
Karrie Webb +5 after 14

Shi Hyun Ahn is the only one on the course with Annika who is also under par. The afternoon players will probably have tougher conditions and a number of them will fall back.

For Michelle Wie, she didn't have her usual high number of greens in regulation in round 1, and had to have a few good up and downs to have a good round. I think she needs to hit more greens because it tends to catch up on a player. They can make X number of saves, but it nearly always catches up on them.

If Annika is on her own, at the top of the leaderboard after the 2nd round, it will send a message out to the rest of the field, and I don't think there are many who will respond positively to it.

Can Se Ri Pak respond? One tournament win doesn't convince me that she will.

Seri will catch and beat Annika, she is back on her game and has a lot to prove.She is so underated;I also expect Michelle Wie to finish in the top 5,I'm looking forward to a finish like the last major.

The afternoon coverage played out pretty much as I thought it would. That's why I said Annika had assumed control. It wasn't completely about the score either, it was just the way she had control of her shots, which she hadn't in recent tournaments.
I was pretty sure there would only be maybe 3 or 4 people under par, despite their being 10 there when I did the earlier post. As it turned out, only 2 stayed under par.

Annika -2
Pat Hurst -2
Shi Hyan Ahn - E
Jane Park - E
Wie - E

I think the others know that if Annika plays well, she is very likely to win.

I was very proud of Wie's 2nd round performance. She stayed strong after her double bogey, making some clutch putts to save pars. She also put herself in some awful trouble on the 7th and had to take a drop. She saved her par, with what Dottie Pepper describes as the best shot of the tournament. If anyone didn't watch it, you should catch some sports news, they are bound to show it. Pure class there.

Halfway through the third round...Annika is +1 to drop to -1 overall, and Michelle is -1 to get to -1. Could be an interesting finale setting up, whenever they get it in.

*EDIT* I had the board from pgatour.com, which must be behind a bit...going to lpga.com, it appears that things have changed a bit.

Pat Hurst now leads at -1 through 12, with Juli Inkster, Michelle and Annika one shot back.

all at E now... no one under par toward the end of round 3

My Prediction:
+1 to win the tournament.
+2 for a playoff.

My 2nd Prediction:

It will come down to a bit of luck.