Lauren Walsh backed up her opening four-under with a one-under 71 on the more difficult Royal Course at LET’s Lalla Aicha Q-School in Marrakech to lie tied for 16th through 36 holes.
The top 65 and ties after 72 holes will advance to the fifth and final round where the eventual top 20 will earn Category 12 status for 2024, with those ranked 21 to 50 achieving category 16 and the remainder settling for the low-ranked Category 19.
Castlewarden’s Walsh, who only turned pro this summer, set herself up nicely with five birdies and just the one bogey on the Al Maaden Course on day one, but with the Royal Course much the harder of the two, consolidation was always going to be an acceptable result on day two.
The par-5 opener presents an early birdie chance and she gratefully accepted, but the following 15 holes would yield 13 pars and two dropped shots coming at seven and 16. Standing on the 17th tee at +1 for the day and -3 for the tournament, she was still handily placed but would be rather disappointed with the day’s work.
That soon changed, however, with a birdie at the par-5 17th followed by another at the par-4 closer and her post-round meal will have tasted much nicer after climbing back into the top-20 with another opportunity to make additional ground when she again tackles the easier Al Maaden Course in round three.
Olivia Mehaffey, playing opposing courses to Walsh, had struggled to a three-over total on day one, and after two birdies and two bogeys on her opening nine – the back nine – dropped a further shot on the front side and the prospect of moving into the top-65 looked to be slipping away.
Two birdies on the closing three holes changed the dynamic altogether though, and her one-under round saw her climb to a tie for 85th, two shots outside the cut mark with 36 holes to go.
Mexico’s Fernanda Lira continues to set the pace, but after her course record setting 62 on day one at Al Maaden, she could only manage a one-under 71 on the Royal Course, and her lead has been cut to one as Spain’s Luna Sobron Galmes and 20-year-old Russian Nataliya Guseva, the latter shooting five-under on the Royal Course on day one and going one better with a -6 effort on the Al Maaden on day two.
“I really like this tree-lined course, it reminds me a lot of home in Mexico,” said Lira. “It was nice, it was a lot more challenging.
“Obviously, when you get into difficult situations – on this course especially around the green because there’s a lot more rough – it’s a lot more difficult to get it back into a good position or give yourself a good chance.
“I did have a couple of times where I went around the green, but it’s good. I enjoyed it and I really like the challenge and I like the contrast between both courses because I feel like you have to be on game on every hole.
“Overall, I have been putting really good. That’s the strong part of my game. I had some wedges that I hit good, but I think off the tee you have to be solid, and I think that’s something that on this course it is something that is asked of every player so I think that helped today to be a better round.
“I look forward to going back to Al Maaden and making as many birdies as possible again. That’s a really fun course where you can really go low. I am looking forward to that and then being a little bit more consistent and working a bit more on my short game for this course for the fourth round.”
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