Kyriacou second as storms stop Evian
A long Saturday lies in wait at The Amundi Evian Championship, where Steph Kyriacou shares second after storms hit the course on Friday and caused the second round to be suspended.
With the afternoon wave on course, the predicted bad weather arrived at 4:23pm local time and forced players off Evian Resort Golf Club before play was abandoned just after 6:00pm. Kyriacou one of four Australians still to complete her round having pushed up the leaderboard.
Trying to match the frantic pace set by Japanese leader Ayaka Furue, who sits 12-under through 13 holes of her second round, Kyriacou is three shots back and tied with Haeran Ryu on 9-under after a birdie blitz on the front nine.
Set to return on Saturday morning to finish her final two holes, Kyriacou started her second round with a bogey before peeling off three consecutive birdies to climb to 7-under.
Two more birdies would come at the two par-5s on the front nine, the seventh and ninth, for the Sydneysider to make the turn in 4-under and right in the mix. The 23-year-old Kyriacou returning to the “boring” golf she described after her opening round, with seven straight pars before the weather arrived.
Chasing a second major win in France, Kiwi Lydia Ko is 13 holes into her second round and sharing 25th on 4-under, while her fellow Evian Championship winner Minjee Lee will be happy to have finished her round in 2-under to sit 3-under overall and in a tie for 30th.
Gabi Ruffels and Grace Kim are next best of the Australians, with the pair sharing 43rd at 1-under. Ruffels, like Lee, likely enjoying a sleep in on Saturday having already signed for a 1-over round, while Kim is even par through 11 holes having mixed three birdies with three bogeys in Round 2.
Hannah Green is the only other Australian to have completed her round, with the major champion signing for a 2-under 69 and even par total to sit just inside the cut line.
Meanwhile, Sarah Kemp has nine holes to improve her 2-over total and Hira Naveed three holes to move from 5-over as the pair chases some weekend work with the predicted cutline currently at even par.
Play will resume at 7:30am local time (3:30pm AEST) with Round 3 set to begin at approximately 10:45am (6:45pm AEST) after the cut to the top-65 and ties is made.
The Amundi Evian Championship is live on Fox Sports, available on Foxtel and Kayo.
Australasian Scores
T2 Steph Kyriacou -9 (16)
T25 Lydia Ko -4 (13)
T30 Minjee Lee -3 (F)
T43 Gabi Ruffels -1 (F)
T43 Grace Kim -1 (11)
T54 Hannah Green EV (F)
T78 Sarah Kemp +2 (9)
T105 Hira Naveed +5 (15)