Mariajo Uribe fired a round of 65 (-7) to move to the top of the leaderboard on day two of the Women’s NSW Open.
The Colombian sat in a share of second place overnight two shots behind leader Justice Bosio of Australia.
Uribe went out in the morning way on the second day at Magenta Shores Golf & Country Club and made back-to-back birdies on holes three and four.
She added another birdie on the seventh before rolling in further birdies on 11, 13, 16 and 17 for a bogey-free 65.
Uribe sits at the top of the leaderboard on 12-under-par and has a three-shot lead heading into the final day.
“I think the greens were nicer today and there was not much wind at all,” said the Colombian.
“It was a little hard because the wind switched between the rounds, so you just have to be careful, but I did better. I had less birdies but also less mistakes, so that’s nice. I’m getting to know the course better, so we will see.
“It doesn’t really matter where you are for tomorrow, someone can come from behind and shoot a bunch of birdies. I’m just going to keep playing my game. My goal was to do three tournaments in a row including last week at Epson Tour, I wanted out of the nine rounds to have eight under-par. So far, so good!”
After her first round, Uribe spoke about her plans to qualify for the Paris 2024 Olympics and retire after that.
“I mean this is my last year, I am retiring after the Paris Olympics. I just need to make points,” Uribe said on Friday.
“This week I was not going to get in the LPGA, so I might as well come here and play, make sure I get a few tournaments in. I love coming to Australia, so it’s nice to come, play some good golf.
“It doesn’t matter, the Tours are good no matter if you play LPGA, LET, Epson, you just have to go out and have a good round.”
Pei-Ying Tsai of Chinese Taipei sits in second place on the leaderboard with a total of nine-under-par.
The 32-year-old produced a round of 67 (-5) which saw her roll in five consecutive birdies on holes nine through to 13.
“It was fantastic,” she said. “I did pretty well with the shots and putts. I hit it quite near to the pins, there weren’t many mistakes.
“Yesterday I played in the afternoon and the greens were a little heavy but today in the morning they were a little bit smooth, so it was different. I enjoy playing in Australia, it’s very good and a lot of fun!”
England’s Bronte Law and Australian amateur Justice Bosio are in a tie for third place on eight-under-par.
Three-time LET winner Law carded a second consecutive round of 68 (-4) which included three bogeys, five birdies and a hole-in-one.
“Holes four and five are tough, if you can get through those in level par you’re doing something right,” said the LET Order of Merit leader.
“I didn’t do too much wrong and came out of there with two bogeys. I was playing well so I wasn’t really too concerned about that and carried on playing the way I was playing.
“I played nicely from then on and had a little bonus hole-in-one which was nice as it doesn’t happen very often. It will be a nice thing to look back on and I’ll always look at the course fondly because of that.”
Law, who is prime position for the final round, made her ace at the par-three 13th hole hitting an 8-iron.
She explained: “I hit a lot of good shots today, that was not my best. It was okay, but I hit a lot of top quality well-struck shots and that’s how it happens sometimes. The ones that you don’t quite catch are the ones that go in the hole.
“It was all about staying patient out there today. The volunteer was acting like it went in but we weren’t sure until we went up there. It was a nice stroll up there and picked the ball out of the hole which was ideal.”
Bosio had a steadier day as she dropped a shot on her opening hole but made up for it with birdies on nine and 11 for a round of 71 (-1).
“I was a little nervous on the first hole and I bogeyed the first, but I knew there were still 17 holes left to go and I definitely grinded my way out there today,” said the amateur.
“It was a bit windier than yesterday, so conditions were a little bit tougher this afternoon. I didn’t play my best golf, but anytime you can still have under par is still good.
“I think my scrambling today kept the momentum going. If I had missed a few putts or not got up-and-down out of a few bunkers that would have killed the momentum, but I’m very happy with how my up-and-down game was today.”
Spain’s Marta Martin and Slovenia’s Ana Belac sit in a share of fifth place with a score of seven-under-par.
Seven players round out the top 10 with Luna Sobron Galmes, Laura Sluman, Sasikarn Somboonsup, Kirsten Rudgeley, Cara Gainer, Laura Fuenfstueck and Maria Hernandez all in T7 on five-under-par.
The cut fell at +2 with 70 players making it through to the final round of action at Magenta Shores.
Round three will begin at 7.50 am (local time) with the leaders heading out onto the course at 12.18 pm (local time).
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