Michelle Wie and Suzann Pettersen
Had it been the annual garden party at Buckingham Palace, the women concerned would have been mortified. Not only had they turned up in precisely the same outfits but their hair-dos were identical - a single, perfectly woven plait.
This was the second round of the HSBC Women's Champions at Tanah Merah rather than a party, but the fact that Michelle Wie and Suzann Pettersen were identically clad and playing in the same group was quite a talking point. Their hats and shirts were white, their skirts a neat blue check.
Almost the only thing to separate the two Nike competitors was the colour of their plaits - Michelle's dark and Pettersen's blonde. That and the pink flower Michelle wears in the side of her cap.
"They realised what was happening at breakfast," said BJ Wie, Michelle's father. "Michelle offered to change but eventually they decided it would be fun to stay the same."
Pettersen likened it to being back at school, only she had adhered to the regulation length of skirt whereas Wie had flouted the rules by wearing hers a little shorter.
"It's great," said a lady behind the ropes. "They both look terrific."
In terms of their games, Wie and Pettersen play much the same brand of long-hitting golf but this was not a day when they were churning out matching pars. Though both had handed in first-round 73s, Wie was forging ahead of the Norwegian. Having turned in a one-over-par 36, the American made a birdie at the 12th and another down the endless 15th to move to one under.
Pettersen, who had been suffering with swollen glands at the start of the week, was out in 38 and dropped two further shots before getting back to three over as she matched Wie's birdie at 15. She then pinned down a three at the driveable par-four 16th.
Meanwhile Chie Arimura, the Japanese Tour player who signed off on Thursday night at four under par and with a one-shot lead over Na Yeon Choi, was going from strength to strength.
As she teed up at the tenth, the five foot three inch Arimura was three under par for the day and seven under for the tournament. At that, she was one ahead of Karrie Webb and two clear of of Choi and Sun Young Yoo. Yani Tseng, the Taiwanese golfer who is out to make this week her fifth victory in a row, was lying on two under.
Arimura's efforts are all the more remarkable in that this is her first tournament of the year and she came to Tanah Merah feeling more than a little nervous. "The good thing," she explained, "was that I prepared well and worked hard on my putting."
Tseng, in contrast, is playing in what is her fifth tournament of the season having won each of the previous four. Her first triumph was in Taiwan, the next two in Australia and the fourth at last week's Honda LPGA Thailand.
Today's, though, was not one of her more inspired rounds. Though she started at two under par and was four under by the time she teed up at the fifth, she was back to where she started after running up a bogey at each of the ninth and tenth.
