South Africa’s Casandra Alexander is the top-ranked LET pro for a reason, and she’s done an excellent job of showing exactly why over the first 36 holes of the KPMG Women’s Irish Open.
After a largely wet and miserable opening day, the sun made a welcome appearance on day two and the action was already re-hot on the golf course with Alexander once again the leading star.
The world number 38 opened with an incredible nine-under 63 and started eagle-birdie-birdie to send shockwaves through the entire field on day two. She couldn’t quite keep that sort of momentum going, but she did close out with a six-under 66 to move to -15 overall and open up a five-stroke lead over the duo of Sara Kouskova of the Czech Republic and Brianna Navarossa from the United States.
“Not as tidy as yesterday,” The South African said. “I left some putts right in the throat and had some awkward wedge numbers. But overall pretty good. It was always going to be hard to follow up yesterday’s round. Sometimes that’s really difficult to get two days really flowing and going. Two eagles helped the situation. Six-under, I’m very happy.
“My caddie said to me after yesterday, if we can just get a red number on day two that would be pretty good because your expectations always go up after you shoot nine-under. I then started eagle-birdie-birdie… I just looked at my caddie [Douglas], laughed and said, ‘shut up, let’s go to the next tee! Let’s move on.’”
A record 16 Irish players took their places in the field, with seven amateurs joining nine professionals, but only six have made it through to the weekend.
Canice Screene was two-over-par for both round and tournament when she walked off the sixth green, but 12 holes later, she was tapping in a birdie putt on the last to move to five-under-par and takes a share of eighth place into the weekend.
“I started out a bit slow, a couple of early bogeys, so I knew I needed to get a few back and then I just started hitting my irons quite close and I holed quite a few putts in a row, all within about 10 feet, so it was nice,” Screene said of her revival. “I think once I saw one go in, I just felt a lot more confident.”
Leona Maguire and Áine Donegan may have been on opposite sides of the draw, but they both had similar experiences in round two as they gave themselves birdie chance after birdie chance but time and again watched putts – and good putts, by their own admission – burn edges and slide by.
“Yeah, I mean, I left probably seven or eight shots out there today,” Maguire said after the round. “I gave myself a lot of chances, which was nice, especially on the front nine but holed nothing, so, I mean it’s positive in regards to giving myself a lot of chances, and just frustrating that I didn’t hole any putts.”
Those sentiments echoed those of Donegan earlier, who said: “It was actually really, really good and just nothing dropped. Like, absolutely everything just seemed to shave the hole.”
Maguire’s round resulted in a one-under 71, while Donegan’s was a one-over 73, and they’re locked together in a tie for 26th at two-under.
Anna Foster and Annabel Wilson are both in red figures at one-under-par and sharing 41st, with Lauren Walsh completing the sextet at level-par which ended up being the cut mark.
Walsh was five-over through 13 holes on day one and had battled back to get to -2 through 17 on day two before an unlucky break that forced her to pitch sideways on the last was compounded by a poor wedge shot and resulted in a double bogey six.
Sara Byrne will be the most disappointed of those who are going home. The Dromoland Castle pro eagled the third – her 12th – to put herself firmly in contention to make the cut, but a three-putt on the sixth proved costly and she was unable to find the additional birdies she needed and missed by two.
Amateur Kate Dillon shot a two-under round of 70, but the damage was done with her 77 on day one, while Olivia Costello, playing alongside Maguire, also shot a 70 to finish on +4, though she closed out with a bogey that was a result of going for the green on the par-5 18th – one of few players who did all day – knowing that she needed to hole-out for an albatross to make the weekend.
Olivia Mehaffey and Anna Abom finished alongside her at +4, with Katie Poots [+5], Beth Coulter and Anna Dawson [+6], Emma Fleming [+10] and Ella Cantwell [+19] all going home after 36 holes.
The weather is set to take a turn for the worse over the weekend, which could lead to volatility on the leaderboard, but if any of the six Irish contenders are to put themselves in with a chance of creating history and becoming the first home winner, they’ll have to make a big move on moving day.
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