Norway’s Suzann Pettersen shot a 7-under 65 to grab a share of the second-round lead with South Korea’s Inbee Park in the LPGA Taiwan Championship.

Pettersen and Park – who between them have combined to win the the opening events on the tour’s Asian Swing during the past fortnight – were both on 10-under 134 totals at the Sunrise Golf and Country Club, with Park having a second round 69.

Yani Tseng, the top-ranked Taiwanese star who won the tournament last year, shot a 69 to be two strokes back along with Scotland’s Catriona Matthew, who had a 66.

Pettersen birdied four of her last six holes. She won her ninth LPGA Tour title last week, beating Matthew in a playoff in South Korea.

“I played really solid on the front nine,” Pettersen said.

“I gave myself three good looks on the first three holes, chipped it in on the fourth, and really just tried to stay aggressive, and when I made the turn, I figured it’s time to kind of shift to the fifth gear, and it’s nice when the body reacts to your kind of mind game, and really just tried to stay aggressive and firing at the pins.”

Park won the LPGA Malaysia two weeks ago for her second victory of the year. She also leads the money list and is second in the player of the year standings, 40 points behind the idle Stacy Lewis. Park would earn 30 points with a victory this weekend.

“If I end up getting player of the year, I think that’s the first time as a Korean,” Park said.

“Looking at all the Korean players playing, I thought there would have been somebody who would have gotten that, but nobody got it, so I was really surprised with the result. If I would be the first one, it would be a really great honour and it would be a gift for me.”