Australia’s Steph Kyriacou provided the early fireworks on the second day of the British Women’s Open with a rollercoaster round that included a spectacular hole-in-one at the eighth.<\/p>\n
She had only one par on the back nine at Royal Porthcawl, in Wales, making two birdies, five bogeys and a chip-in eagle at the 18th to make the cut at golf’s last major of the year.<\/p>\n
But everyone wanted to talk about her slam dunk hole-in-one at the eighth.<\/p>\n
“I don’t know \u2014 I’m not tall enough to see over the wall,” she laughed.<\/p>\n
“Yeah, a pretty good shot. I didn’t see it go in, which sucked, but the crowd went nuts, and I heard the flag. Didn’t damage the hole, which was surprising, so it was quite clean. But my first official hole-in-one with no asterisk. Pretty excited.<\/p>\n
“I didn’t want to celebrate if it didn’t go in the hole. I thought maybe it hit the flag and just went somewhere, so the reaction is probably pretty cool for a hole-in-one. I just gave a running high five when we got to the green,” she added.<\/p>\n
Asked about the “asterisk”, Kyriacou explained: “I had a hole-in-one in a practice round for a prequel. There was witnesses, first ball, but it’s not really the real deal, is it?”<\/p>\n
Conditions in Wales were tricky, she added. “That stretch at the end is really difficult, especially with how much it’s blowing now. It’s kind of a bit of a blow. It doesn’t feel like I made four bogeys on those holes. Honestly, if you play those four holes at one-over, you’re doing pretty well.<\/p>\n
“I had a good line in the bunker (at the 18th), which is pretty lucky because you can get actually creamed in these bunkers. I had a good lie into the wind. It was uphill. Pretty easy shot from the bunker for sure.”<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, her team were looking forward to celebrating that hole-in-one. “I think everyone is going to use it as an excuse to get drunk on my team. I’m happy to do that for them (laughter).”<\/p>\n
Women’s Open<\/p>\n
Leaderboard (36 holes)<\/p>\n
Miyu Yamashita (JAP) – 11-underRio Takeda (JAP) – 8-underLaura Fuenfstueck (GER) – 4-underChiara Tamburlini (SWI) – 4-underPajaree Anannarukarn (THA) – 4-underLindy Duncan (USA) – 4-under<\/p>\n
Japan’s Miyu Yamashita took advantage of calmer conditions to surge into the lead with a superb second round 7-under 65.<\/p>\n
She finished 11-under, with compatriot and joint overnight leader Rio Takeda three shots adrift.<\/p>\n
England’s Lottie Woad, the bookmakers’ favourite, mounted a charge, but a triple-bogey at the 16th meant she carded a 2-under 70 to be nine shots adrift at halfway.<\/p>\n
Difficult afternoon conditions meant the cut came at 2-over par, with only Kyriacou, Grace Kim (2-over) and Minjee Lee (2-over) making it to the weekend.<\/p>\n
Gabriela Ruffels (3-over), Hira Naveed (5-over), Cassie Porter (8-over), Karis Davidson (9-over), Hannah Green (12-over) and Kirsten Rudgeley (13-over) all missed out.<\/p>\n