Elm Park duo Anna Foster and Emma Fleming lead the home charge but Leona Maguire was “proud” to dig deep and make the cut with a shot to spare in the wind-lashed KPMPG Women’s Irish Open at Carton House.
Rookie Foster (23) shot a one-over 74 that leaves her tied for 25th on one-under, 10 strokes behind world amateur No 1 Lottie Woad, who fired a brilliant 67 in moderately less windy morning conditions to head Switzerland’s Chiara Tamburlini by three shots on 11-under.
Amateur Fleming (20) also fought hard in south-west winds gusting to 60 kmph, battling her way to a 77 that left her joint 40th on level-par.
Maguire shot a two-over 75 to make the two-over par cut with a shot to spare, but that doesn’t tell the full story.
She turned in three-over 40 and found herself in danger of missing the cut when she followed a birdie at the 10th with a double-bogey at the tough 11th.
But displaying her trademark grit, she made birdie twos at the 14th and 16th before getting up and down for pars at the last two holes.
“I felt like I hit some nice shots coming in,” said the Cavan star. “It was more of a grind today. Definitely, this afternoon, those gusts were very tricky to say the least. So proud of how I hung in and yeah, two more days.”
After the double-bogey at the 11th left her “behind the eight-ball”, she refused to throw in the towel.
“When it’s like this, and the ball’s going nowhere, you really have to do a lot of calculations, a lot of extra thinking,” she said.
“I’m tired. I mean, you have to make the best of what you have on any given day. And I felt like it would have been very easy to give up today, and I didn’t do that.
“I know there are a lot of people wanting to come watch me over the weekend, so hopefully the draw is a little bit kinder to us tomorrow. We’ll see if we can post a number.”
She had sympathy for Lahinch’s Aine Donegan, who birdied the 15th to get to one-over with two to play before she thinned her fourth from a greenside bunker at the par-five 17th into the woods and ran up a triple bogey eight en route to a 79 that saw her miss the weekend by two shots on four-over.
“It’s hard when there's a lot of sand like that in the bunkers and they're wet and all that,” Maguire said. “But she hit a lot of good shots. She’s got a busy summer ahead of her and I am sure she'll take the positives.”
Tamburlini birdied the last to shoot 71 and sit alone in second, but world No 19 Charley Hull is lurking just four shots behind after a 69 left her tied with Australia’s Kirsten Rudgeley, Swedish Solheim Cup star Madelene Sagstrom and Kiwi Amelia Garvey.
Rookie Canice Screene made the two-over cut on the mark with a 75, but Sara Byrne shot 74 and missed the cut by one as amateur Anna Abom doubled the last on her 20th birthday to finish a shot further back after a 76.
Carton House touring professional Walsh was six-over with four to play and while she birdied the 15th and 16th, a second successive 75 was not enough.
She faces an anxious wait now to see if she will win an automatic spot in the field for the AIG Women’s Open awarded to the top 10 in the Order of Merit not already exempt.
She was eighth on that list starting the week but could be leapfrogged this weekend and forced to tee it up in Final Qualifying.
Article Link: Foster and Fleming shine as Leona digs deep and Woad leads - News - Irish Golf Desk