Cara Gainer remains in the mix to defend the Lalla Meryem Cup after replicating an impressive eagle double on Royal Golf Dar Es Salam’s Blue Course.
The defending champion produced a pair of brilliant eagles in round one carding threes at both the par-5 2nd and par-5 8th – the latter coming after a stunning second shot where she narrowly missed out on an albatross.
Having carded a 71 (-2) on Thursday, Gainer then repeated her heroics on Friday carding eagles on the exact same holes en route to a round of 69 (-4).
“Two eagles again on the same hole today which I’ve never done before,” the 30-year-old said. “We were almost laughing when I holed the putt on eight. It just happened to be my day on those holes.
“I’ve been struggling a little bit with my wrist injury at the minute. I don’t feel I’ve been hitting my irons as nicely as usual. But I’m playing strategic and placing the ball where I can as you have to do on this golf course.”
The Englishwoman has now made has six eagles during the 2026 season on the Ladies European Tour (LET). South African Casandra Alexander leads the eagle tally having carded eight this year.
Gainer won the Lalla Meryem Cup in 2025 defeating India’s Diksha Dagar in a playoff to claim her maiden LET title. She sits seven shots back in a tie for fifth heading into the third and final round. Australia’s Kelsey Bennett leads the way in Rabat on 13-under par.
“Kelsey [Bennett] is having a great couple of days and she’s stretching away,” Gainer said. “But on this golf course, you really never know what’s going to happen. You can hit a couple of shots off line and make some big numbers as we’ve seen on the scoreboard. There’s such a big dispersion of scores. I’m not going to rule anything out.
“I’ll just continue playing how I’ve been playing and hopefully the wrist feels better tomorrow.”
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