NORTON, Mass. (AP) — Miranda Wang waited a long time to make a short birdie finally finish a 5-under 67, giving her a two-shot lead Friday among those who completed their second rounds in the rain-delayed FM Championship.
Most of the wet day at TPC Boston was a series of rain delays, and it wound up taking Wang some 10 hours to finish the round.
Nelly Korda, scheduled for an afternoon start, managed to get in four holes (two birdies) and will return with the second half of the field Saturday morning.
Jeeno Thitikul, the No. 1 player in women's golf, joined Hannah Green and defending champion Lauren Coughlin in jogging down the ninth fairway when they saw darkening skies and wanted dearly to finish their round before the next delay.
“I don't think I could have mentally prepared myself for another delay,” Green said with a laugh.
Wang already has 16 birdies over 36 holes and has stretches of big birdie runs. She started the tournament with eight birdies in her opening nine. She finished the second round with three in a row, only it didn't go all that quickly.
She had an 8-foot birdie putt on the par-5 18th when the horn sounded — again — stopping play. Wang returned some two hours later and holed the putt to reach 11-under 133.
“I didn’t expect the weather because on the forecast we didn’t see any thunderstorms coming in this morning. But, well, that’s golf,” Wang said. “We’re playing in nature, so it’s sometimes unpredictable. We just have to face it and prepare mentally, physically for the thunderstorms and just try to stay calm and every time warm up just like you didn’t stop and just keep going.”
Madelene Sagstrom had a 66 and was at 9-under 135. Green (68), Azahara Munoz (68) and Celine Borge (66) were another shot back.
The LPGA was hopeful that with a reasonable weekend forecast, the tournament could be close to getting back on schedule by Saturday evening or Sunday morning. The plan was for the cut to be made and then to send threesomes off both nines.
Korda, who has yet to win this year, faced 32 holes on Saturday as she tries to stay in position for a chance at her first victory of the year.
Thitikul, who replaced Korda atop the world ranking earlier this month, charged into the mix with four birdies on the back nine. But she played the front nine in event par for a 68 and was four shots behind.
On this day, what mattered was finishing. It was her idea the group waste no time playing the ninth when they saw the clouds.
“The security guard told us ... three minutes left, so run, ready and go,” Thitikul said. “It was start and stop, start and stop. It was frustrating a little bit, but glad we're done.”
Also four shots behind were Women's British Open champion Miyu Yamashita (66) and Jodi Ewart Shadoff, who finished the opening round with four straight birdies to share the 18-hole lead. She had to settle for a 72 on Friday.
AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf
Nelly Korda hits from the third tee during the first round of the FM Championship LPGA golf tournament at TPC Boston, Thursday, Aug. 28, 2025, in Norton, Mass. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)
Hannah Green, of Australia, tees off on the ninth hole during the first round of the FM Championship LPGA golf tournament at TPC Boston, Thursday, Aug. 28, 2025, in Norton, Mass. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — President Donald Trump is set to meet Thursday at the White House with Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, whose political party is widely considered to have won 2024 elections rejected by then-President Nicolás Maduro before the United States captured him in an audacious military raid this month.
Less than two weeks after U.S. forces seized Maduro and his wife at a heavily guarded compound in Caracas and brought them to New York to stand trial on drug trafficking charges, Trump will host the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Machado, having already dismissed her credibility to run Venezuela and raised doubts about his stated commitment to backing democratic rule in the country.
“She’s a very nice woman,” Trump told Reuters in an interview about Machado. “I’ve seen her on television. I think we’re just going to talk basics.”
The meeting comes as Trump and his top advisers have signaled their willingness to work with acting President Delcy Rodríguez, who was Maduro’s vice president and along with others in the deposed leader's inner circle remain in charge of day-to-day governmental operations.
Rodríguez herself has adopted a less strident position toward Trump and his “America First” policies toward the Western Hemisphere, saying she plans to continue releasing prisoners detained under Maduro — a move reportedly made at the behest of the Trump administration. Venezuela released several Americans this week.
Trump, a Republican, said Wednesday that he had a “great conversation” with Rodríguez, their first since Maduro was ousted.
“We had a call, a long call. We discussed a lot of things,” Trump told reporters. “And I think we’re getting along very well with Venezuela.”
In endorsing Rodríguez, Trump has sidelined Machado, who has long been a face of resistance in Venezuela. She had sought to cultivate relationships with Trump and key advisers like Secretary of State Marco Rubio among the American right wing in a political gamble to ally herself with the U.S. government. She also intends to have a meeting in the Senate on Thursday afternoon.
Despite her alliance with Republicans, Trump was quick to snub her following Maduro’s capture. Just hours afterward, Trump said of Machado that “it would be very tough for her to be the leader. She doesn’t have the support within or the respect within the country. She’s a very nice woman, but she doesn’t have the respect.”
Machado has steered a careful course to avoid offending Trump, notably after winning last year’s Nobel Peace Prize, which Trump coveted. She has since thanked Trump and offered to share the prize with him, a move that has been rejected by the Nobel Institute.
Machado’s whereabouts have been largely unknown since she went into hiding early last year after being briefly detained in Caracas. She briefly reappeared in Oslo, Norway, in December after her daughter received the Nobel Peace Prize on her behalf.
The industrial engineer and daughter of a steel magnate began challenging the ruling party in 2004, when the nongovernmental organization she co-founded, Súmate, promoted a referendum to recall then-President Hugo Chávez. The initiative failed, and Machado and other Súmate executives were charged with conspiracy.
A year later, she drew the anger of Chávez and his allies again for traveling to Washington to meet President George W. Bush. A photo showing her shaking hands with Bush in the Oval Office lives in the collective memory. Chávez considered Bush an adversary.
Almost two decades later, she marshaled millions of Venezuelans to reject Chávez’s successor, Maduro, for another term in the 2024 election. But ruling party-loyal electoral authorities declared him the winner despite ample credible evidence to the contrary. Ensuing anti-government protests ended in a brutal crackdown by state security forces.
Janetsky reported from Mexico City. AP Diplomatic Writer Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.
FILE - U.S. President George Bush, right, meets with Maria Corina Machado, executive director of Sumate, a non-governmental organization that defends Venezuelan citizens' political rights, in the Oval Office of the White House, Washington, May 31, 2005. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)
FILE - Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado gestures to supporters during a protest against President Nicolas Maduro the day before his inauguration for a third term, in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos, file)
