The KPMG Women’s Irish Open moves into the weekend at The K Club with six Irish players still involved, a commanding leader at the top of the field and another day in which the action away from the ropes provided almost as much to talk about as that taking place on the Palmer South Course.
South Africa’s Casandra Alexander remains very much the player to catch.
Having opened the Championship with a course-record 63 on Thursday, the Ladies European Tour Order of Merit leader followed it with a six-under-par 66 on Friday to reach 15 under and establish a five-shot advantage at the halfway point.
It was a different kind of round but an equally impressive one.
Alexander started from the tenth with eagle-birdie-birdie and added another eagle at the third as she demonstrated once more why she arrived in Ireland as the highest-ranked player in the field.
Sara Kouskova of the Czech Republic and American Brianna Navarrosa are her nearest challengers on ten under, with Louise Rydqvist and Corinne Viden a further shot back.
Screene Leads the Irish Challenge
The performance of the day from an Irish perspective came from Canice Screene.
Starting the morning at level par, Screene produced a superb 67 to climb to five under and a share of eighth place.
Seven birdies across her final 12 holes transformed her position in the Championship and ensured that she will begin Saturday as the leading Irish player, albeit ten shots behind Alexander.
There are five more Irish players joining her for the weekend.
Leona Maguire recorded a second successive 71 to reach two under, the same mark as Áine Donegan and Annabel Wilson.
Maguire had moved to four under for the tournament through 12 holes before bogeys at 16 and 18 took some of the shine off a round in which she created considerably more opportunities than the final score suggested.
Donegan, who had led the Irish challenge overnight after her opening 69, added a 73, while Wilson’s second successive 71 also secured her place comfortably inside the weekend field.
Anna Foster shot 71 to move to one under and Lauren Walsh produced an important 69 to reach level par and make the cut on the number.
That leaves six of the record Irish contingent still standing after 36 holes: Screene, Maguire, Donegan, Wilson, Foster and Walsh.
There was disappointment for Sara Byrne, who missed the weekend after rounds of 73 and 73, while Olivia Costello produced a strong response to her opening 78 with a two-under 70.
The halfway cut ultimately fell at level par.
KPMG Clubhouse Conversations
Our second day of KPMG Clubhouse Conversations again allowed us to look beyond the leaderboard and at some of the wider stories around women’s sport, business and participation.
Jennifer Rock, founder of Skingredients, brought an entrepreneurial perspective to the conversation.
Sport, golf and spending hours outdoors provide a natural setting in which to discuss skincare and sun protection, but our conversation also explored the journey of building an Irish consumer brand and the determination required to turn expertise and an idea into a successful business.
There are obvious parallels between entrepreneurship and elite sport: resilience, preparation, confidence in what you are trying to achieve and an ability to recover when things do not go entirely to plan.
We also caught up with Lauren Walsh on a day when those characteristics were being tested very directly.
After opening with a 74, Walsh needed to move in the right direction on Friday and did exactly that.
Four birdies helped her towards a 69 and a place in the weekend field, despite a double bogey at her final hole.
Our conversation looked at life on tour, the development of the group of Irish players now establishing themselves in the professional game and the significance of having a home championship in which family, friends and young golfers can see them compete at close quarters.
The depth of that Irish representation has been one of the most striking elements of this week’s tournament.
Playing in Pink
Miriam Hand of Play in Pink joined us for a conversation that showed another way in which golf can deliver an impact far beyond competition.
Play in Pink has turned the simple act of playing golf into a powerful fundraising movement supporting breast cancer research.
Its success is rooted in clubs, volunteers and golfers taking ownership of the idea and making fundraising part of the social fabric of the game.
It was an opportunity to talk about the power of sport as a community network and about golf in particular as a means of bringing people together around an important cause.
The conversation also fitted neatly into a week where the growth of women’s golf is being measured not simply through tournament fields and television audiences but through the communities that surround the sport.
Building Women’s Sport
Our final Clubhouse Conversation of the day was with Nora Stapleton, Women in Sport Lead at Sport Ireland.
The setting could hardly have been more appropriate.
A record Irish representation started the week, thousands of spectators have been watching women’s elite sport at close quarters and the Championship is being broadcast nationally across the four days.
Our conversation looked at the progress made through Sport Ireland’s Women in Sport programme and at the next challenge: turning greater visibility and investment into sustainable increases in participation, coaching, leadership and high-performance opportunities.
There has been significant progress in the profile of women’s sport in Ireland, but the task now is to ensure that the structures beneath that visibility continue to strengthen.
The KPMG Women’s Irish Open offers a very visible example of what that development can look like.
Young players attending The K Club this weekend can watch Maguire, Walsh, Donegan, Foster, Wilson and Screene competing in their national Open while also seeing international professionals making a living from the sport.
Saturday at The K Club
Attention now turns to the third round and whether anybody can apply pressure to Casandra Alexander.
A five-shot advantage after only 36 holes is formidable, particularly given the South African’s form, but there remains plenty of golf to be played.
Six Irish players have made it through to the weekend, led by Canice Screene, whose excellent second-round 67 lifted her to five under and a share of eighth place.
Lauren Walsh will be the first of the Irish players onto the Palmer South Course on Saturday morning, teeing off at 8.22am after battling her way onto the right side of the cut with a second-round 70.
The Irish tee times for Round Three are:
8.22am – Lauren Walsh
9.46am – Leona Maguire, playing alongside Emma Spitz and Hannah Screen.
10.22am – Áine Donegan, alongside Jana Melichova and Sophie Witt.
11.34am – Canice Screene, alongside Alexandra Försterling and Noora Komulainen.
Anna Foster and Annabel Wilson are also among the six Irish players through to the weekend, with their third-round starts coming in the earlier section of the draw.
The leaders go last, with Casandra Alexander, Sara Kouskova and Brianna Navarrosa teeing off at 11.58am. Alexander starts the day on 15 under, five shots clear of Kouskova and Navarrosa.
That gives Screene an opportunity to play immediately ahead of the leading groups and, at five under, to continue what has already been an impressive home Open.
Maguire and Donegan start at two under, with the challenge for each of the Irish players now to take advantage of Moving Day and give the home crowd something to follow into Sunday’s final round.
Live television coverage begins at 2pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player, with Sky Sports also carrying the tournament.
After two days, the sporting story is Alexander’s extraordinary scoring.
The Irish story is the six players who have earned another two days at their home Open.
And through our KPMG Clubhouse Conversations, the wider story continues to be about what a tournament of this scale can represent: elite performance, entrepreneurship, community, purpose and the continued growth of women’s sport in Ireland.
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Image Credit: KPMG Women’s Irish Open and Mel MacLaine
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