Little-known LPGA Tour player Kelly Shon steals the show at star-studded KPMG Women’s PGA Championship

With Lydia Ko making a run for her 1st 2017 win, Michelle Wie in contention for her 2nd major, and Lexi Thompson making an eagle on No. 18 on her way up the KPMG leaderboard while dealing with her mother’s illness, it’s 3rd-year pro Kelly Shon who ties the Olympia Fields course record with a 2nd-round 63.

Michelle Wie is all over the place with her putting grip but right in the thick of things at this week’s KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.

Lydia Ko has not won an LPGA Tour event since the Marathon Classic last July, but the former world No. 1 is in contention for her third major title.

Lexi Thompson is hanging around the top of the leaderboard after two decent rounds while playing with a heavy heart as her mother battles a major illness.

The women’s second major of the year is loaded with star power and any one among those we’ll loosely call the Big 3 would be the story on any other day. But Friday’s second round belongs to the first-ever Princeton grad to join the tour, Kelly Shon, who’s flawless 8-under 63 not only got her to the weekend but tied the Olympia Fields competitive course record.

As if that weren't enough excitement for one day, the 25-year-old from South Korea also matched the score shared by two World Golf Hall of Famers as well.

All this, after Shon posted an opening-round 77 that she had to finish Friday morning after inclement weather forced a suspension of play on Thursday, and that virtually guaranteed an early exit from the Chicago event. Except Shon came back out and made a huge eagle putt on the par-5 18th that propelled her to a record-tying round that included another eagle on No. 18 (her ninth hole of the second round) on her way to a blemish-free, six-birdie, one-eagle score .

"When I made that 90-foot eagle putt [to finish the first round], my caddie said he had a feeling I would make it and that I would make the cut,” Shon said after completing her blemish-free round that got her to 2-under for the week — four shots clear of the projected cut line and just five strokes behind early clubhouse leaders Sei Young Kim and Danielle Kang.

Among the marquee players, meanwhile, top-ranked So Yeon Ryu followed an opening 69 with a 68 to put her two back of the early frontrunners, while Ko signed for a 68 after starting with a 70.

Thompson, already dealing with the continuing fallout over her four-shot penalty at the ANA Inspiration, revealed far more devastating news about her mother's uterine cancer before Thursday’s opener.

“It’s been rough. I’ve known kind of after Kingsmill [Championship in May] everything going on, and you know, she’s my best friend. So hearing that, and then just dealing with a lot of things this year, it was just kind of like a breakdown moment for me,” Thompson told reporters after a first-round 70. “I’ve been struggling a little bit, but she’s doing better now. And hopefully she’ll be there at the U.S. Women’s Open with me and support me there. But all is good right now.”

Her mother, a breast cancer survivor, is Thompson’s inspiration.

“She's always been a role model of mine. I always aspire to be the woman — half the woman that she is,” said Thompson, who shot a 69 on Friday. “She just says, ‘No matter what, I love you, just go out, do your best, that's all you can do.’ That's her message every week and that's why I absolutely love her.”

Then there’s Wie. The four-time tour winner has been playing some of her best golf this season but has not won since capturing the 2014 U.S. Women's Open and apparently has no idea what putting approach she will use from round to round, or even green to green.

“I just go and I’m like, ‘this one’s right,’ and I just go with it,” she told Golf Channel’s Steve Sands after posting a 68 in her opening round. “It’s kind of a ‘whatever’ thing. I don’t know, I’m not really thinking too much into it.”

That “whatever” thing seems to be working for Wie, who made the turn in her second round at 1-under for the day and 4-under overall.