England’s Thalia Martin, 30, took full advantage of moving day to shoot up the leaderboard after tying the course record with a nine-under 63 on Thursday at Manchester Golf Club on the LET Access Series (LETAS).
The Indonesian-born Martin, who carded a first-round 71, has taken the co-lead of the Women’s English Open with Iceland’s Ragga Kristinsdottir (65) at 10-under overall.
Trailing by one shot at nine-under for the tournament is Czechia’s Tereza Zapletal Kozeluhova (69), who is chasing her maiden professional win.
After birdieing 11 of her first 15 holes, Martin was on track to shoot 61 but bogeys on holes 16 and 17 put a slight blemish on what was otherwise a sensational round of golf.
“I was trying to push for double digits, but we’ll still take nine-under,” Martin joked. “I did not know (my score) until hole 16, then I started to realise when I looked up my scorecard to check, which I probably shouldn’t have done because I was doing so well not knowing.
“But yeah, just trying to stay in the present moment and just doing process and not think about the outcome. I had no idea what score I was on for the front nine, but I knew I was doing well because I’m seeing the putts drop. So that’s always a good sign.”
After six birdies on her front nine, Martin carried on her red-hot form into the back nine with five straight birdies from holes 11 to 15.
“I think I’ve been working a lot on my putting and reading the greens and pace,” she said. “Today just seemed to click. I just managed to see the line a little bit better today. My approach shot’s always been good.
“I’ve been struggling sometimes with the driver, but today I found fairways and managed to dial in my numbers, and then just managed to roll some putts in, which is part of the game.”
Born in the coastal city of Banda Aceh, Indonesia, Martin moved to England when she was four. She only started playing golf at the age of 13, a sport she discovered by chance.
“We lived here since 2000,” she said. “I was in a tennis family, so it was more racket sports than anything else. And then, luckily, we were waiting for a table at a restaurant, and they said it would take an hour.
“So then, my dad said, ‘Oh, there’s a driving range nearby. Let’s go there to kill some time.’ And I was like, ‘Golf, really?’ I like running, but I tried it. Then that’s the start of the story. I just got addicted. I just loved it from that moment, and then yeah, took it from there.
“My parents wanted me to do full-time golf when I started, but I just loved running about at that age, so I stuck to the tennis until my back couldn’t take it anymore. That’s when I switched to the golf side fully, and then yeah, here I am.”
Playing her first LETAS event since the 2025 Women’s Irish Challenge, Martin, who primarily plays on the LET, finds herself in a familiar position having won her first major title at the Madaef Golfs Ladies Open last year.
She will be trying to take her mind outside of golf ahead of tomorrow’s final round.
“Eat, sleep and repeat,” she chuckled. “But no, just chat with friends, catch up with them, maybe do my nails, nothing golf related. Then tomorrow is a new day, we’ll see how it gets on.”
Kristinsdottir, who fired nine birdies to move herself into the co-lead, is no stranger to this position having already recorded two top-five finishes this season.
She walked onto the 18th tee with a one-shot advantage but made her second bogey of the day on the final hole to drop back into a share of the lead.
“Approach play, iron play, out of this world,” she said. “Every shot I hit felt to the right side of my dispersion. I never hit more than four or five metres for birdie and you’re gonna make some of them.
“I got two bonus ones, made two long ones, other than that just iron play. I hit it maybe three feet closer than yesterday, felt like I could go low yesterday and it happened today.”
The Icelandic golfer is hoping to notch her second LETAS victory exactly one year after her Vasteras Open win.
“Hopefully we can do something this year as well,” she said. “I feel good. I took two weeks off after Czechia, which was needed to give my competitive brain a little time to relax. Had a little vacation, and that did me really good.
“I had no expectations coming into the last week, and I played good, so I was like okay, my game is in a good spot. So hopefully, just build on that and take the confidence that I have in my game now, and hopefully do the same tomorrow.”
Kristinsdottir missed out on her LET card by one stroke after coming eighth in the LETAS Order of Merit standings last season. The year-end top seven players will earn full status on the LET for the following season.
“I honestly wasn’t sure how I was gonna feel coming into this year,” she added. “It took me a while to recover. I played Q-school not feeling the best mentally. I took another month off just to completely reset again and didn’t practice that much until March.
“I know my game is there. It’s just when it happens, it happens. I’m at that state now and if it happens this year, amazing. If not, we’ll just keep on going.”
Hot on their heels is Kozeluhova, 25, who mixed five birdies with two bogeys to shoot 69 after her first-round 66.
“The first nine was really good,” she said. “I was struggling from the tee box, my drivers weren’t the best, but I managed to always end up being on the green or make a sand save.
“The second nine wasn’t the best. I think I was feeling the pressure that I had to like play good. I wasn’t feeling my swing at all, I just felt like I was so tight, so those shots weren’t the best.
“But I’m glad that I managed to hit minus three so tomorrow I still have a chance to play for the top spot.”
The Czech golfer is chasing her maiden professional victory. “That’s why I’m still playing,” she added. “I’m still trying to push, and every year is really tough when things don’t go the way I want them to go.
“It’s really hard to always like get up and keep going. And now I feel like the game is in a really good place, so I’m just gonna go for practice a little bit and see if tomorrow is gonna be the day or not.”
At eight-under for the tournament is England’s Billie-Jo Smith (70) in solo fourth place, while the trio of Austria’s Isabella Holpfer (68), Australia’s Hannah Reeves (68) and United Arab Emirates’ Hyeonji Kang (68) are another stroke back in a tie for fifth.
In tied-eighth at six-under overall, the quarter of England’s Rebecca Earl (68), South Korea’s Ayeon Yang (66), Italy’s Maria Vittoria Corbi (70) and Sweden’s Sofie Bringner (71) are four shots behind leaders Martin and Kristinsdottir.
The cutline was set at even-par with 52 players set to return tomorrow, although Order of Merit front-runners Lauren Holmey (76) and Natalie Armbruester (75) both missed the cut at one-over overall.
The final round of the Women’s English Open resumes at 8am (local time) on Friday morning with the final pairing of Martin and Kristinsdottir to tee off at 11.20am.
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