South Korea’s Nayeon Eum carded a round of 70 (-2) to lead by three strokes after the second day of the Anna Nordqvist Västerås Open By SmartProvider.
The 27-year-old opened her round with a nervous tee shot, but quickly bounced back with a great up-and-down on the first hole. She rolled in three consecutive birdies on holes four, five and six to make the turn in 33.
Eum then finished the back nine level-par in the windy conditions to post a round of 70 and leave her eight-under-par for the tournament with one day remaining.
She said: “I got a bit nervous on the first tee box and hooked my first shot. I thought ‘okay, let’s just go with the flow and see where it takes me.’ The up-and-down on the first dropped my nerves and then I kept on fighting. I actually missed a lot of birdie putts today.”
“I actually didn’t realize I had three birdies in a row until my playing partners told me. I just did what I had to do. It was definitely tougher than yesterday because it was a bit windy.”
This is Eum’s second start on LETAS this year. She finished in the top-10 last week at GolfUppsala Open and is looking for a win in Västerås.
She continued: “Hopefully I don’t get too nervous or too excited tomorrow, I’m just going to do my own thing out there. If I do win this event, I’d be really happy and that would be a new start to my golf career. So, hopefully I have a good day tomorrow.”
Tied for second on -5 is India’s Amandeep Drall who carded 70 shots today – rolling in three birdies on her final five holes.
She shares the spot with Finland’s Emilia Tukiainen who was among three players to shoot the lowest round of the day with 69 (-3). The Finn was almost error-free in the second round as she carded four birdies and a bogey.
“I played solid today, only make a few mistakes but managed to save pars. I had one bogey on the same hole as yesterday, so hopefully I will beat it tomorrow with a par or a birdie,” she said.
“I will just focus shot by shot and try to do my best tomorrow. I am happy with my game this season so far, I only just turned professional three months ago.”
Three players are tied on -4 heading into tomorrow’s final round. England’s Lily May Humphreys has carded two consistent rounds of 70 (-2), while Norwegian amateur Celine Brovold Sanne added 71 shots to her first round of 69.
Joining the two on four-under-par is Austria’s Katharina Muehlbauer who also fired a round of 71 today with a total of six birdies.
Muehlbauer commented: “It was a very up-and-down round today; I had a lot of birdies but added some bogeys as well. It was a bit more stressful than yesterday but, in the end, I am happy with the result.”
“The wind made it a bit tougher today, but the course is great so happy to play tomorrow again. I will just keep going in the final round and hope for another good result.”
Two Scotswomen Rachael Taylor and Gabrielle MacDonald share the seventh spot on -3 with Swedish amateur Meja Ortengren, while Czechia’s Sara Kouskova rounds off the top ten on -1.
Follow all the action @LETAccess on Instagram and Twitter – #RaiseOurGame.