“Honestly, I’m just really happy to make the weekend, it’s been a while since I’ve been able to play the weekend,” said Khang, who has missed the cut in seven of her last eight tournaments.
“To be here, in my home state, home sponsor [Khang is a brand ambassador for Rhode Island-based FM], I’m very happy to make the weekend and just really happy to see some putts go in.”
Khang began her day 1 over, but after birdies on Nos. 2 and 3, she was 1 under. After 14 holes she was 4 under with no bogeys yet, but dropped shots on 15 and 17, however, put a crimp on her day.
“It was a little bit of a sour finish,” said Khang. “I just missed the fairway on 15, and it’s a tough putt back there, but I tried to putt, did my best. I was really happy to get up-and-down on 16.
“And then on 17, I think on my second shot, my club just got a little stuck, and so I kind of shut it down a little left. And for anyone who’s not playing, left is pretty much dead to that pin right now. I gave myself a chance at par but guess I just didn’t really trust the line there. But, to have a really good two-putt on 18 was a nice finish.”
Pano, who began at 6 over, went 6 over again with another 78, her ninth missed cut in 16 starts this year. She’s currently sitting 90th in the Race to the CME Globe rankings, and she needs to stay in the top 100 to keep her Tour card for next year.
Anna Nordqvist, who is ready to retire at 39, wasn’t done at the FM Championship after carding a 4-under 68 Friday.Alex Slitz/Getty
Thirty-nine-year-old Anna Nordqvist, who is retiring after this tourney, shot 68 to move to 2 under and add two days to her career that began in 2009.
“I guess I’ve always wanted to finish on a high,” the Swede said. “Playing good yesterday, just being in those really gusty winds, being hard to score, get close to the holes, I feel like it was just one of those days. Like, really determined to try to do everything I can to be able to play the weekend.”
Suvichaya Vinijchaitham started the day with five consecutive birdies, six in her first eight holes, for a 7-under 65. She went into the weekend tied for ninth at 6 under.
“I thought, ‘Oh, this is another hot day,’ that’s it,” said Vinijchaitham about her start. “So it’s kind of like a flow state. Whenever you hit, it’s just good.”
Suvichaya Vinijchaitham rattled off five straight birdies to start the second round of the FM Championship at TPC Boston.Alex Slitz/Getty
Good day at ‘The Office’
Brian Baumgartner, the actor who portrayed chili-spilling ladies-man Kevin Malone on “The Office,” was on site to promote Voltaren, a joint pain relief product. With that commercial message out of the way, the bulk of the time was spent trying, unsuccessfully, to find a sports connection the 53-year-old Atlanta native and Southern California resident has with Boston.
He is a big-time golf player and fan — he has a 7.3 handicap index and co-hosts the “We Need a Fourth” golf podcast — who once played a dream foursome with Billerica native Tom Glavine and the other two Braves pitching legends, Greg Maddux and John Smoltz, so there’s that. And he certainly knows Bay State natives and former castmates Steve Carell, John Krasinski, and B.J. Novak well.
Plus, he used to golf with Tim Wakefield, as well as Derek Lowe. Another ex-Red Sox, Kevin Youkilis (husband of Tom Brady’s sister, Julie), is a neighbor.
But Boston sports ties? Not so much.
Besides the Braves, he’s a fan of the Lakers in large part because they didn’t beat up the Hawks like the Celtics used to; the Green Bay Packers; plus Georgia football and SMU basketball.
He does, however, have lovely memories of a month-long stay in Boston more than a decade ago for what turned into a “seven- to 10-second” scene in the female-led “Ghostbusters” reboot. Besides becoming a devotee of lobster rolls and sushi during his stay, Baumgartner’s opinion of Boston sports fans – expressed comedically, he said — underwent a transformation.
“I had spent my entire adult life rooting specifically against Boston and all of their sports teams because of their well-deserved labeling as being obnoxious and winning too much,” said Baumgartner. “I found the people so generous and warm and delightful and so unlike the sort of archetypal. obnoxious sports fan. I went to Fenway and had a fantastic time in an absolute mecca of not just baseball but sports. And as a huge baseball fan, that was a real pleasure of mine.
“And so I have said to many people since then, being there and meeting so many people there and having the opportunity to go to Fenway, my feelings about the fans and the city have softened quite a bit. I had a great, great time. That is all true.”
(Emma Healy contributed to this report.)
Michael Silverman can be reached at michael.silverman@globe.com.