Switzerland’s Morgane Metraux charged out of the gates on Thursday at Le Golf National, recording an Olympic nine-hole record of 8-under 28 and hung on through a bumpy 2-under back nine to seize the lead after round two of the Olympic women’s golf competition.
After starting her day with a birdie at the first, the 27-year-old Metraux went on a tear, starting with an eagle at the par-5 third and then reeling off three straight birdies on Nos. 4-6.
She capped her front nine with her second eagle of the day, dropping a putt from 15 feet, 7 inches to turn in 28 and record the best nine-hole score in both the men’s and women’s Olympic golf competitions to date.
“The difference between yesterday and today at the beginning is just the putts that fell,” said Metraux, who is 137th in the world rankings. “It just brought me confidence going forward and just tried to stay as present as I could and one shot at a time. It went pretty well.”
The momentum slowed on the back with a bogey-birdie-bogey stretch over holes 13 through 15, and she found the water with her second shot while trying to go for the green in two on the par-5 18th to finish with a bogey for a six-under 66 and an 8-under total for 36 holes.
Metraux holds a one-stroke lead over China’s Ruoning Yin, who carded the round of the day with a bogey-free 65. Two-time Olympic medalist and defending bronze medalist Lydia Ko of New Zealand vaulted up the leaderboard with a 67 and stands third.
Also posting a notable second round was Slovenia’s Pia Babnik, who carded a 66 that featured a run of five straight birdies from holes 12 to 16. Babnik, who opened with a 2-over 74 in Round 1, improved 26 spots on the leaderboard and currently sits in a tie for fourth.
First-round leader Celine Boutier struggled to a 4-over 76 . She suffered a particularly rough stretch on the back nine, making double bogey at 13, bogey at 14 and double at 15.
Defending gold medalist Nelly Korda had eventful final stretch en route to her second-round 70, making birdie at 15, quadruple bogey at 16, bogey at 17 and birdie at 18. She is now six shot behind the leader.
Team GB’s Georgia Hall added a second 74 to sit on four-over-par in a tie for 36th, while Charley Hull, who had a disastrous 81 yesterday, faired 10 shots better today, shooting a one-under 71 that featured three dropped shots over the closing three holes. That left her in tie for 52nd and 16 shots off the lead.
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