LPGA’s kids make noise

EDINA, Minn. -- Add them up and you’ve got a trend, more than enough for a carpool, 27 teenagers at the U.S. Women’s Open. So what exactly does that mean to an old lady like 21-year-old Paula Creamer?

Her number’s up?

Or is what’s going on at Interlachen Country Club really just one big teen scene, with 27 members?

“Well, I think that at the end of the day it’s just a number,” Creamer said. “You have to be mature, you have to be able to handle a lot of situations out here.

“It’s a major, but stranger things have happened.”

Maybe even this week.

Creamer is only two shots behind 19-year-old Angela Park, but Friday’s second round is incomplete, because play was called because of darkness just before 9 p.m.

A 2 1/2 -hour weather delay didn’t exactly speed up the process and even though the players were back on the course before 7 p.m., that didn’t leave enough time for everyone to finish.

Park’s total of six-under 140 is worth a one-shot lead over Minni Blomqvist, Inbee Park and Helen Alfredsson.

Even before the storms moved in, Interlachen was playing sort of springy, made softer because of damp, humid conditions, perfect for both mosquitoes and birdies.

Park, born in Brazil, has one top 10 since February. She shot a six-under 67, taking advantage of the soft greens and by keeping the ball consistently below the hole.

Alfredsson, 43, hasn’t won an LPGA event in five years, but she stayed close with her two-under 71. Creamer is in a four-way tie for fifth at four-under 142 with defending champion Cristie Kerr, Candie Kung and Jeong Jang.

Lorena Ochoa shot one-over 74 and is tied for 36th, seven shots behind the leaders.

Park eagled the 473-yard No. 2, rolling in a 30-footer up the hill with a left to right break, then birdied two of the next three holes to make her move.

Park needed only 28 putts, and she quoted Tiger Woods for inspiration.

“I hit good putts, so like Tiger says, get the right speed and they will drop.”

Of course, Creamer knows all about how to make your teenage years count.

Four days before she graduated from high school, she won the Sybase Classic and became the youngest winner of a multi-round event at 18 years and nine months. For good measure, she won the Evian Masters two months later and was the youngest player to reach $1 million in career earnings, as well as the quickest to get there.

Creamer has three top 10s in majors, but her best result in the Open was a tie for 13th -- when she was 17-year-old amateur.

Eighteen-year-old Michelle Wie improved on her first-round 81, but with one hole to go, she’s 10 over and won’t make the cut.

Blomqvist shot a four-under 69 and wished she knew that was going to happen, because she would have prepared better.

“I’m upset because I forgot to put on makeup today,” she said. “I didn’t think I was going to play that well. I should be looking nice for the media.”

Blomqvist, 23, is one of four players recruited for endorsements by the Wilhelmina modeling agency who are playing the Open this week at Interlachen. Blomqvist has been here before. She played the Junior Solheim Cup here when she was 17.

From Espoo, Finland, Blomqvist said she resists the notion held by some of her Swedish peers that Finns speak with an odd accent. She said the joke is on the Swedes, actually.

“I always tell a story why Swedes are so good in the golf,” she said. “Because in golf, you need empty mind, and there’s nothing going on in their heads, so that’s why they play good.”

Few Swedes have ever played better than Annika Sorenstam, and there is probably a lot going on in her mind right now

Sorenstam’s three-under 70 could have been lower, but she hit trees twice at the 17th and wound up with a bogey, then missed a four-foot eagle putt at the 18th and settled for a birdie.

Even so, the three-time U.S. Open champion says she believes she’s on the right track and credits some recent putting drills with Dave Stockton. She said her technique is still a work in progress.

“It’s short and jabby and then the ball sometimes jumps and you don’t get the roll you want,” she said.

The morning, when Sorenstam played in a group with Creamer and Suzann Pettersen, was mostly overcast and muggy, so Interlachen turned out to be a little softer than expected. But it remains an unusually challenging test, Sorenstam said, and a lesson in how to strategize.

“I’ve hit four irons off the tee, I hit five-irons, I hit five-woods, four-wood, driver . . . I mean, that’s five different clubs off the tee other than par threes,” she said. “I can’t think of any other golf course like that.”

The third round is expected to get underway around 10 a.m., after the second round is completed, and players will be grouped in threesomes and play off two tees.

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thomas.bonk@latimes.com