Co-leader Bae Sang-moon credits family for renewed strength

Bae Sang-moon moved into a share of the lead at the KPGA Tour Hyundai Marine & Fire Insurance Choi Kyoung-ju Invitational, which carries a purse of 1.5 billion won ($1.1 million).

Bae carded five birdies and two bogeys for a 3-under-par 69 on Friday at Ferrum Club (par 72) in Yeoju, Gyeonggi Province. His two-round total of 8-under 136 put him level with Song Min-hyeok, who trimmed one stroke off his opening score to join Bae at the top of the leaderboard.

Bae is a veteran with 14 victories at home and abroad — nine on the KPGA Tour and five in the United States and Japan. Yet a genuine chance to win again feels unfamiliar. The fearless swing and confident smile that once made him a force on the world stage have been absent for some time.

"Over the last four or five tournaments my results were poor, so I tried to stop overcomplicating my swing and keep things as simple as possible," Bae said. "It sounds easy, but when it comes down to it, it was hard to put into practice. Once I cleared my head of all that, my iron play came back to life."

Through the lean stretch, his family kept him going. Now a father, Bae opened up about the past year or two. "My results weren't there and it was really tough, but my family was a tremendous source of strength," he said. "Home was definitely the place where I could feel at ease and find real comfort. My family gave me the strength to get back on my feet."

Bae also reflected on a mental lapse that followed a solid showing at the Kolon Korea Open. "Because I had played reasonably well there, I had this foolish thought that I could make up for a long slump all at once — that this time I was going to do something special," he said. "I looked hard at that arrogance inside me and learned a painful lesson. I don't intend to make the same mistake twice."

Looking ahead to the weekend, Bae said he would block out the rest of the field. "I'm not going to worry about the other players — I'll focus only on my own game, one hole and one shot at a time, and play calm golf," he said. His last KPGA Tour title came at the 2014 Shinhan Donghae Open.

Song, who had surged to the outright lead with a 7-under opening round, posted four birdies against three bogeys on Friday to stay level with Bae at 8-under.

Song claimed his first tour win at the GS Caltex MK Open last May. "At the press conference after last year's MK Open, I said that if I ever won a second title I would play with even more confidence than I did for the first," he said. "I'm going into this week with exactly that same mindset."

Kim Hong-taek struggled through three consecutive bogeys on holes 13 through 15 and dropped one stroke overall, leaving him at 4-under 140 and in sole third place.

Tournament host Choi Kyoung-ju gave back three strokes but made the cut at 2-over 146, good for a share of 19th place.

Choi, who missed the cut at this event last year, said the key to the weekend would be iron precision and managing flyer lies. "It's going to come down to how close you can stick your irons to the pin and how well you control the flyers," he said. "The weekend will be a battle to hit greens, and with the pressure involved, it should make for a really entertaining tournament."