Lauren Coughlin couldn’t miss on Saturday at the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship. At least until her 10th hole.
Starting her day on the back nine, the LPGA Tour veteran opened the second round at Pinnacle Country Club with nine straight birdies. That’s a first in LPGA history. Her score of 26 is also a record for the lowest 9-hole raw score in LPGA history.
Lauren Coughlin’s ninth straight birdie of the day 🤩
She’s on an absolute heater pic.twitter.com/e9LGcT6ANi
— LPGA (@LPGA) September 26, 2026
The performance gave Coughlin an opportunity to break Annika Sorenstam’s LPGA single-round scoring record of 59, set at the Standard Register PING in 2001, but she relatively cooled off as she moved to the front nine.
Coughlin posted only one birdie for the rest of the day, on No. 3, but did not bogey at all. She “settled” for a 10-under 61 on the day. That rocketed her up 106 places on the leaderboard, following a 2-over performance in the first round, to a tie for 21st place at 8-under.
In total, Coughlin hit 12 out of 13 fairways and made 18 of 18 greens in regulation, with 26 total putts.
Yuna Nishimura currently leads the field by five strokes at 16-under. She was almost as brilliant on Saturday, carding a 63 to put distance between her and the three-way tie of Auston Kim, Mary Liu and Michelle Zhang for second place at 11-under.
Coughlin’s round came the day before her 34th birthday. She made her LPGA Tour debut in 2017 and has since logged three tournament wins, most recently the Aramco Championship in April. She is coming off a strong performance in Team USA’s loss at the 2026 Solheim Cup, playing all five sessions and posting a 3-1-1 record.
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