Áine Donegan is safely through to the weekend at the LET’s Australian Women’s Classic at Magenta Shores Golf Club, but there was nothing routine about her level-par 72 in round two.
Making her second start as a full LET member, the Lahinch woman carded an opening three-under round to share 20th, and a birdie-birdie start suggested that she might emulate last week’s second-round heroics that catapulted her to the top of the leaderboard on debut, especially when she then birdied the fifth to cover the opening five in -3.
But a bogey on six halted her early momentum, and she parred her way to the turn despite three-putting the par-5 ninth, but the missed opportunity sparked a run of four consecutive bogeys to start the back nine and from three-under through five, she was now two-over through 13.
She bounced back with a birdie on the par-3 16th, then got up-and-down for another on the par-5 17th, taking her back to level-par for the day and to -3 overall which sees her tied for 17th and seven shots off the lead.
Unfortunately, Anna Foster won’t be joining her on the weekend tee sheet. The Elm Park woman followed a 74 in round one with a 75 on day two to miss the cut by four.
At the top of the leaderboard, Kelsey Bennett continued her “solid” start to 2026, posting a round of 68 (-4) to move one shot clear in her home state.
Two back from Sara Kouskova before the start of play, the Australian carded seven birdies and dropped two shots to lead the way heading into the weekend.
Bennett, born and raised in New South Wales, also led through 18 holes at last week’s Ford Women’s NSW Open before eventually finishing T8. This followed a T12 at the season-opening PIF Saudi Ladies International in Riyadh.
“It was solid again today,” the 26-year-old said, who followed up yesterday’s 66 (-6) to move to 10-under par for the tournament. “There were a few little mishaps in there, sort of made a couple of average bogeys, but yeah, just managed to keep my head screwed on and just keep going and then made a few birdies coming in, which was nice.”
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