Blomqvist is lights-out

EDINA, Minn. - If she's big news back home, there's a reason.

"In Finland, it doesn't take that much," said Minea Blomqvist. "We're only a country of 5 million people."

The fact that one of them is challenging to win the US Women's Open is big news in Finland, especially when the sun is shining and the golf is good, even at midnight. Heck, in those wild and crazy teenage days, "we used to go play like at 2 [a.m.], the middle of the night."

She delivered this news with a wide, bright smile - partly because that is her personality, partly because her 4-under-par 69 in yesterday's second round of the US Women's Open pushed her into the thick of things at Interlachen Country Club before a ferocious thunderstorm halted the festivities for 2 hours 40 minutes. At 5-under 141, the 23-year-old Blomqvist is one off Angela Park's clubhouse lead.

In her third year on the Tour, Blomqvist is playing in just her ninth major and only her second US Open. The other start came at Newport CC in 2006, when she missed the cut by one stroke.

The 2002 Sparbanken Open remains her biggest victory, which means Blomqvist hasn't broken through on the LPGA Tour, but she's making progress. She made 10 cuts in 18 starts in her rookie season, 2006, and was 93d on the money list a year ago. Small steps, perhaps, but she feels she's moving forward and remains committed to golf, even if she is engaged.

"We haven't talked when, we don't want to rush it," she said, when asked if she and her fiance, Roope Kakko, had set a wedding date. "Golf is the No. 1 thing."

For both of them, because while Blomqvist travels America in pursuit of her career, Kakko is in various European outposts playing the Challenge Tour. Before she teed off in her second round, Blomqvist was able to go online to see that Kakko shot 4-under 67 to push to 3-under 139 and tie for 15th in Scotland.

Good news, but she didn't mind matching his 4 under to steal his thunder, a suggestion that gave her reason to laugh.

Of course, a short time earlier she hadn't been in such a good mood, thanks to a sloppy three-putt bogey at her 17th hole, the par-3 eighth. "It just made me mad," she said.

Not too mad, though, because she hit the fairway at the ninth, then drilled an 8-iron to 3 1/2 feet. The closing birdie was a good way to cap the morning round.

"When you're playing good, you're 3 under, you know you are kind of in the hunt," she said. "You don't give up or you don't lose your mind. That would be very stupid."

Inkster falls apart

It wasn't her worst score in US Women's Open history, but Juli Inkster had a birdie-less round of 81 in muggy morning conditions, an inexplicable collapse that left her on the wrong side of the cut line for a second straight year and just the third time in the last 17 tries. Having started the day at 1 over and tied for 48th, Inkster made four consecutive pars. Then, it all fell apart - a bogey at par-4 fifth, a triple at the par-4 sixth, then a bogey at the par-3 eighth. To the turn in 41, she was 6 over for the championship when she made a double bogey at the par-5 10th. You have to go back to the opening round in 1985, when Inkster shot 86, to find the last time she had such a miserable trip in this championship . . . No such worries for another two-time US Women's Open winner, because Meg Mallon fired a 72 -147 and pushed into a share of 36th.

Eagle eye

Candy Hanneman halted a stretch of 27 holes without a birdie in style - by holing out for eagle at the par-4 first. She birdied the par-4 sixth, but shot 76 -154 and missed the cut . . . Amateur Lauren Doughtie went 31 holes before she made her only birdie of the week, at the par-4 fifth . . . Virada Nirapathpongporn also made just one birdie in 36 holes as she shot 79 -160 and is 0 for 6 in her bids to make the cut in this championship . . . Heather Daly-Donofrio shot 81 -155 and missed the cut for the eighth time in eight starts at the US Open . . . Carri Wood of South Dennis, Mass. (76 -152) and Anna Grzebien of Narragansett, R.I. (77 -153) missed the cut . . . After a miserable opening 81, Michelle Wie played the back nine in eight pars and a birdie to lower her score to 7 over for the tournament when the weather delay hit. Wie added five pars and three bogeys after the delay to sit at 10 over with one hole to play in Round 2 . . . On Thursday, 13-year-old Alexis Thompson shot 75 to beat Sherri Turner, 51, by a stroke and Martha Nause, 53, by 3. In Round 2, Turner came back with a 70 -146 to make the cut while Nause shot 75 -153, and Thompson went 77 -152 . . . USGA officials announced a three-hole aggregate playoff - the 16th, 17th, 18th - Sunday would decide a tie. If sudden-death is needed, it will go in the same order.