Leona Maguire produced a brilliant second round to make the cut at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Hazeltine Golf Club.
The Cavan golfer had endured a difficult opening day in Minnesota, stumbling to a 75, but she responded with an excellent 69 to return to even par, two strokes inside the cut line.
That included leader Ina Yoon, the South Korean who was 13-under par, seven shots clear of second place, with a third of her round still to play.
Maguire is a long way back of that lofty target, but she’ll feel a lot better about her game after Friday’s round.
Maguire’s round started poorly with a bogey at two after finding sand with her second shot, and there would be further dropped shots at nine and 15, but six birdies – including four at the par-threes – saw her race well inside a cut-line that was projected to be two-over par.
Lauren Walsh endured a day to forget, a second-round 78 seeing her finish on seven-over par for the tournament.
Starting at the 10th, Walsh had three bogeys in her first four holes and her misery was compounded with a double bogey at her penultimate hole after finding water at the eighth hole.
Stephanie Meadow, a late addition to the starters’ list this week, finished on 10-over par. She did improve drastically on Thursday’s 82 though, shooting 72 on Friday.