It was a week to forget for the Irish on the LET as Annabel Wilson, Anna Foster and Áine Donegan all missed the cut in the Women’s Australian Open at Kooyonga Golf Club.
The damage was done in the difficult afternoon winds in round one, with Foster best placed but still two shots outside the cut mark. Things didn’t improve in round two, and by the time each of the three had reached the turn, uphill tasks had gotten much steeper as both Foster and Wilson covered the holes in four-over and Donegan was playing for pride.
In the end, Wilson missed out by three shots and Foster by four, with Donegan well down the pack and Donegan and Wilson now turn their attention to next week’s Australian WPGA Championship on the Gold Coast while Foster takes the week off and will next play in the Aramco Championship at Shadow Creek in Las Vegas.
At the business end of the leaderboard, Celine Herbin will take a one shot lead into the weekend after carding a second round 70 (-2) to move to six-under par.
A host of Australians remain in the mix following 36 holes of action in Adelaide. One of the headline stars, Major winner Hannah Green, sits just one back in a tie for second alongside compatriot Kirsten Rudgeley and France’s Agathe Laisne – a recent winner at the Ford Women’s NSW Open.
Playing in the afternoon wave, patience was the name of the game for two-time Ladies European Tour (LET) winner Herbin as she came alive on her back-nine, the course’s front-nine, following 10 consecutive pars.
After the turn, Herbin posted birdies at the 2nd, 4th, 5th and 6th to soar into a two shot lead before she handed two shots back to the field with a double-bogey on the 7th.
But with the Adelaide heat cooling down, the 43-year-old made a clutch birdie at the par-5 9th thanks to a wonderful third shot. She leads a bunched field by a single shot heading into the weekend in Australia.
“It’s awesome [to be leading]” Herbin said. “The truth is, I’m not looking at the leaderboard, so I had no idea that I was leading. I’m just happy with how I played and we will see on Sunday night what happens.
“There was a lot of patience on the first 10 holes today. I had to save a couple of pars. I had a few birdie chances but the ball was just not dropping. But we stayed patient with my caddie [Doug]. We really had a good chat about how patience is important. And finally I got the first birdie on the hole number two [my 11th], the par-5, from the bunker. That kind of kicked off the round.”
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