Australians Katherine Hull-Kirk, Lindsey Wright and Sarah Kemp made the week-end at the Ricoh Women’s British Open being played on the Old Course at St Andrews, Scotland.

The trio will be chasing Rolex World No. 4 Na Yeon Choi. The talented South Korean gave a dominant display in the strong breeze that picked up late morning on the Old Course. Choi posted her second consecutive round of five-under-par 67 to have her at the top of the leaderboard at 10-under-par.

Choi holds a one shot lead over Japan’s Miki Saiki (66), with first round co-leader American Morgan Pressel a further shot back after signing for a 70. Norway’s Suzann Pettersen took full advantage of playing early to post a 67 and move up the leaderboard to share fourth place with South Korean Jee Young Lee (67) and American Nicole Castrale (70) at seven-under-par.

Hull-Kirk is the leading Australia at two-under-par. The Queenslander was one of the afternoon players and had to contend with the wind, particularly coming in. She went out in one-under, with two birdies and a bogey, however bogeys on 13th, 14th and 17th and a lone birdie on the difficult par 4 16th saw her come home in 38. Hull-Kirk is tied for 22nd position.

Wright was out mid morning and got through the first nine before the wind picked up. The Victorian went out in one-under-par, but struggled on the back nine, with bogey on 11th, followed by a double on the 13th and another bogey on the 14th. At this stage she was sitting at one-over and would have been thinking about the cut. She rallied to finish birdie, bogey, birdie and sign for a 74.

Kemp posted an impressive one-under-par in the afternoon breeze. The highlight of her round being four consecutive birdies from the 6th to 9th holes. Wright and Kemp are at even par for the Championship and tied for 49th position.

It was a tough day for the remainder of Australian contingent, with the majority having to contend with the strong breeze. The biggest casualty was three time winner Karrie Webb, she posted a four-over par 76 to finish the tournament at six-over-par and missed the cut for the first time in an LPGA event for over 55 events.

The cut was made at one-over-par, 145, with 69 players making it through.
Unfortunately for Queensland’s Bree Arthur (75), she also finished at six-over, while Nikki Campbell (76), Sarah Jane Smith (76) and Stacey Keating (77) all finished at seven-over-par. Western Australian Whitney Hillier finished at eight-over after a second round of 77.

The eyes of the golfing world are on Inbee Park this week as she goes in pursuit of her fourth straight major championship. Park sits eight shots off the
lead heading into the weekend and cannot be ruled out of the title race.

The leading amateur going into the last two rounds is 17 year-old English international, Georgia Hall, the 2012 British Girls’ champion, who carded rounds of 68 and 75 to go into the weekend on one under par 143, one shot ahead of France’s Celine Boutier and two shots in front of World No. 1 amateur, Lydia Ko, from New Zealand. Ko is bidding to win her second Smyth Salver, having also claimed the amateur prize at Royal Liverpool 12 months ago.

The biggest casualty of the day was joint first round leader, Camilla Lennarth from Sweden, who opened with a six under par 66 but plummeted to a ten over par 82 in the second round to miss out on 148.