In the women’s British Open played at the Old Course in St Andrews, world number one, Nelly Korda, had a comfortable three shots lead after round two on Friday. Despite the challenging wet and windy conditions, Korda delivered a flawless round of 68. Commencing the day among the early golfers, she grabbed the clubhouse lead swiftly and maintained it without dropping any shots.
The American golfer boasted a new ‘Spider’ putter, which she used to achieve four birdies, two of which were on the 17th and 18th hole from far distances. She heads into the weekend at eight-under after battling the wind and rain on the links.
Meanwhile, Leona Maguire secured her participation past the halfway cut with a round of 72, resulting in one over par. Stephanie Meadow, however, found herself on the wrong side of the cut at five over, spelling the end of the Open for her and Lauren Walsh, who scored 77, resulting in eight over for two rounds.
Korda admitted she didn’t capitalise on the less challenging conditions during the initial nine holes but was pleased with her overall solid performance.
Thursday’s leader, Charley Hull, showed lesser form with her putting, suffering three bogeys. However, she managed to recuperate with three birdies thereby salvaging par. Sharing second place with Hull is the current champion and world number two, Lilia Vu after scoring 70. Yet, Hull remains hopeful to bridge the gap with Korda over the weekend.
Hull expressed her thoughts on not performing as well as the day earlier. She admitted missing a few short putts at the beginning of her game. She further confessed that her putting game wasn’t as strong, and she had difficulty with the pace that day. However, she is only trailing Korda by three strokes and doesn’t see it as a major issue, considering there are more rounds to play in the current golf course.
Meanwhile, China’s Yin Ruoning improved her standing and is now fourth, thanks to a final-hole birdie. Her current position places her four strokes behind the leader, Korda. Lydia Ko who is an Olympic champion, Casandra Alexander from South Africa and Swedish amateur Louise Rydqvist share fifth place. Alexander leapfrogged to her current position with a round of 68, while Rydqvist had a joint-low score of 67 for the week.
Catriona Matthew, who holds the distinction of being the only Scot to win the British Open in 2009, was playing in what will be her final appearance. She gracefully exited the event with a birdie and savoured the applauding spectators’ praise while standing on the Swilcan Bridge. Speaking about the moment, the soon-to-be 55-year-old said that she was a bit taken aback and felt slightly awkward. She confessed that she had never given much thought to her final play but acknowledged that St Andrews was the perfect location for it, being in her home country, Scotland. – Reuters