LPGA Tour rookie Chiara Tamburlini made a significant move Friday at The Chevron Championship, carding a 3-under-par 69 in the second round at Memorial Park Golf Course.

After opening the tournament with a 73, the Swiss native found her rhythm, recording five birdies against two bogeys to sit at 2-under heading into the weekend. The performance places her comfortably inside the cut line in her first major championship as a tour member.

Reflecting on her turnaround after a shaky start to the tournament, Tamburlini remained grounded.

"Honestly, super happy with how today went, really like the last 27 holes," Tamburlini said following her round. “I had a rough start yesterday, I think I was 4-over through nine, so really proud of myself for sticking through.”

The rookie highlighted the "gettable" nature of the par-5s at Memorial Park as a key to her success. While she acknowledged the overall difficulty of the course, she managed to capitalize on scoring opportunities late in her round.

"It’s a difficult golf course, but the par-5s are definitely gettable and you can make a couple birdies coming in," she said. "It’s not done until it’s done.

Tamburlini noted that her resilience this week stems from past disappointment. Last year, she missed the cut at The Chevron Championship after failing to recover from a poor start.

"I feel like I learned a lot from that," she said. "I feel like I've been doing lots of work mentally as well, and I think that's paying off. Confidence might be low if you keep missing shots, and felt like I was missing by a tiny little bit, but we all know it's a game of small margins."

On a course defined by razor-thin margins, Tamburlini is proving that the difference between a collapsing scorecard and a steady round often has less to do with the swing and everything to do with mindset.

"It was just staying in it I think that made the difference," she said.

The 26-year-old earned her 2026 LPGA Tour membership after finishing T15 at the LPGA Q-Series. While she is a newcomer to the LPGA, she has a great deal of experience under her belt. A former standout at the University of Mississippi, she was a member of the Rebels' 2021 NCAA Division I National Championship team and a three-time winner on the Ladies European Tour in 2024 winning the Joburg Ladies Open, Lacoste Ladies Open de France and Wistron Ladies Open - Taiwan.

Her experience in 2025, where she played in every major championship and secured top-15 finishes at both the AIG Women’s Open and the U.S. Women’s Open, appears to be paying dividends in the season's first major championship.

Chiara Tamburlini Climbs Leaderboard in The Chevron Championship Rookie Debut

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