EVANS, Ga. — Lottie Woad of England moved one spherical nearer to changing into the primary back-to-back winner of the Augusta National Women’s Amateur, posting a 2-under 70 on Thursday to share the 36-hole lead with fast-closing Oregon sophomore Kiara Romero.
Woad, a junior at Florida State and the No. 1 participant within the girls’s novice rating, subsequent heads to Augusta Nationwide for a observe spherical Friday and the ultimate spherical Saturday.
She takes together with her loads of expertise, not solely from having competed on the house of the Masters however having rallied to win on the ultimate day.
“I’ve received all of the expertise from final yr of the 48 hours between,” Woad mentioned of the Friday break for all contestants to play Augusta Nationwide. “It is fairly optimistic to me.”
Romero was dynamic, and he or she needed to be after a tough stretch in the midst of her second 9 holes. She crashed out of the lead with a double bogey on No. 4 and a bogey on No. 5, solely to shut with three straight birdies for a 68.
They have been at 9-under 135 going into what ought to be a compelling remaining spherical with 5 gamers inside two photographs of the lead.
Carla Bernat Escuder of Spain had a 68 and was one shot behind, together with Andre Revuelta of Spain (66) and Megha Ganne, who had a shaky patch early and one other unhealthy gap late. She had a 73, 10 photographs worse than her opening spherical, however was nonetheless very a lot within the combine.
“Tried to create momentum inside holes and grinded it out for what I assumed was a reasonably good 73,” mentioned Ganne, who holed a 25-foot birdie putt on her remaining gap to get inside one shot.
The true drama got here on the backside. All 71 gamers get to play a observe spherical at Augusta Nationwide on Friday, however solely the highest 30 and ties make the minimize to play within the remaining spherical.
Kelly Xu birdied her final gap to make it on the quantity. So did Ko Kurabayashi of Japan, who shot a 65 to advance to Saturday.
Emma McMyler fell beneath the minimize line with a bogey on the seventeenth, solely to birdie the 18th to make the minimize at 1-under 143.
Amongst these at 7-under 137 was Asterisk Talley, who final yr was runner-up within the U.S. Junior Ladies and the U.S. Girls’s Novice. She additionally shared low novice honors on the U.S. Girls’s Open at Lancaster.
Talley opened with a 71 and tried to keep away from any drama making the minimize. Seems that wasn’t a difficulty when she made 5 birdies in a six-hole stretch beginning at No. 9 and wound up with a 66.
“I used to be sitting near the minimize line, so I knew I needed to play some good golf to make the minimize,” Talley mentioned. “I began off fairly regular on the entrance 9, after which I caught some hearth on the again.”
