Áine Donegan will hope she can make a charge up the leaderboard over the weekend after back to back rounds of 70 left her just outside the top-20 at the halfway stage of the Australian WPGA Championship.
Donegan recovered from a poor start to round two where she carded bogeys on the second and third with two birdies in three holes on the fifth and seventh.
The Lahinch woman was steady on her way home with ten pars and a birdie on the par-4 15th to climb to two-under and into a share of 23rd place. She trails the in-form home favourite Hannah Green by eight shots but is just three shots outside the top-10.
Meanwhile, Annabel Wilson has shaken off the rust of last week’s first appearance to just about make the cut on the number despite a second round of 76.
The Castlerock star showed what she can do with an opening 68 which had left her just four off the early pace but she fell down to a share of 60th on two-over but has an opportunity to get back into her stride over the weekend.
At the top, Green is chasing her third win in a row in Australia as a second round of 67 saw her move two shots clear in Queensland.
Playing alongside compatriot Steph Kyriacou and New Zealand’s Amelia Garvey – both close friends – and trailing Scotland’s Kelsey Macdonald by one shot before the start of play, Green resumed business on Friday carding birdies at the 2nd, 3rd and 5th to storm into the outright lead.
A brief hiccup came a hole later when the Aussie found water at the par-3 6th dropping two shots. But Green bounced back in style carding an excellent eagle at the 7th after hitting it to seven-feet with her second shot.
Another birdie followed at the 8th as Green went out in 33 shots. On to the back nine and the one-time Major winner’s rollercoaster round continued as she bogeyed the 11th before rolling in a 55-feet monster birdie at the 13th. Another dropped shot followed at the 15th with Green birdying the par-5 18th for a round of 67 (-4).
“It was definitely a rollercoaster, that’s for sure,” the 29-year-old said. “It was nice to get the eagle on the par-5 after making a double on the par-3. Hopefully I can go back to playing a bit more boring golf. Bogey-free was nice yesterday, so that’s what I’m going to try and do this weekend.
“I feel like I’m probably putting more pressure on myself as I am obviously on such a hot run. Perhaps if I didn’t win the last two events, I would maybe fly under the radar a little bit more than I have obviously winning my last two tournaments. I think we still have a really strong LET field, so it’s not like I have it easy this weekend. There’s going to be a lot of good players behind me that are going to be chasing me and probably have less pressure on themselves.”
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