Belgian Manon De Roey posted an eight-under-par 64 on day two of the Saint-Malo Golf Mixed Open and will take a three stroke lead into the weekend after reaching 13-under-par at the halfway stage.
The 2018 WPGA International Challenge winner posted eight birdies to take control at Saint-Malo Golf Resort in Brittany, ahead of French duo Frederic Lacroix and Maxime Radureau in the mixed event, which is co-sanctioned by the Alps Tour and LET Access Series.
De Roey took advantage of the perfect scoring conditions and rolled in two birdies in her first three holes, followed by another pair of birdies at the seventh and eighth. She made further gains at the 10th, 12th and 15th, before getting up and down from a bunker at the 18th to close her round.
“Today was very steady and I didn’t make any bogeys. I took advantage of the par fives again and birdied them all. I made a couple of long putts as well, but I’m happy with my round today,” she said, adding: “It would mean a lot to win a tournament in general and this one is special because it is with the guys, but there are two more days to go.”
Lacroix made six birdies but dropped shots at the short fourth and long 15th holes. After completing his afternoon round, he said: “I felt pretty good about today and just had a couple of bogeys on the card. Conditions were maybe a little bit harder because of the wind and the course drying out a bit.”
When asked how he would approach the weekend, the two-time Alps Tour winner this season added: “I will try to win, obviously, but I don’t know how it’s going to go. It doesn’t matter if it’s a guy or a girl in front: I will try to catch her, or him and I will do my best to do that. I don’t know Manon but 67 and 64 are great scores and she deserves to be on top right now.”
It was a mixed bag for Radureau, who started with three birdies in a row and made an eagle on 15, but mixed two more birdies with two bogeys. Through translation, he said: “My putting was great but I made two mistakes due to wedge shots. Over the weekend I hope to distance myself from the field.
“I enjoyed the format, but I think the atmosphere might change over the weekend, especially if you have two girls playing with a guy. Usually you can see which clubs the other guys hit from the tee, but from different tees you can’t do that, so that will be interesting.”
Teremoana Beaucousin, James Sharp, Rafa Echenique and Pierre Pineau share fourth a stroke back, with Kevin Hisbois, Timon Baltl, Julien Foret, Clemens Gaster and Jonathan Yates tied for eighth.
The third round will begin at 9.26am local time on Saturday, with 51 players, including two amateurs, surviving the cut of two-under-par or better. The last group tees off at 12.30pm.
