Australian Rebecca Artis fired an impressive round of seven-under-par 66 to charge to the top of the leader board at the RACV Ladies Masters in Queensland.
Artis, from New South Wales, now calls the Gold Coast home and carded eight birdies and one bogey in her seven-under-par round to lead the Masters at nine-under-par.
A winner on the LET at the Helsingborg Open in 2013, Artis will take a three shot advantage into the third round at the RACV Royal Pines Resort. Leading the chase is England’s Charley Hull who posted her second consecutive round of three-under-par 70 and South Korean Annie Choi, who carded a two-under-par round of 71 to be right in the mix.
Artis came into the media centre with a huge smile and said: “Yeah a good round of golf – take that.”
“I started the round with a bogey and they always say you start a good round with a bogey. So it was seven under, I’ll take that.”
Artis is comfortable being at the top: “I put myself in contention a few times over the last couple of years and had the win in Sweden a couple of years ago and I feel like my game’s really going forward.”
A change to her putting has made a big difference to her confidence. “I’ve changed my putting to left hand low. I changed after the second round of LPGA Q School which is not ideal but I just felt like I really had to make a change with my putting. My coach was over there and Geoff my husband who caddies for me he was there, and we just made a group decision that it was time to make a change with my putting; it’s worked wonders really.”
“You know, I can start the ball on line now, you know the line I choose, and it’s just been a matter of getting used to the feel of it and getting the pace because it feels a little bit different. But I feel like as if you know I’ve got that now and I feel comfortable over it now. I felt a bit nervous, especially last week when it was the first tournament I played with it but I feel like I’m really comfortable over the putter now and can start the putts on line so which is a nice feeling.”
Outright fourth is England’s Holly Clyburn (71), while France’s Gwladys Nocera (71) and LET rookie and winner of the 2014 Xiamen Open Ssu-Chia Cheng from Chinese Taipei (69) share fifth place at three-under-par. Australian Breanna Elliott (69), first round co-leader Su Oh (75), Norway’s Tonje Daffinrud (70) and amateurs Rebecca Kay (70) and Hannah Green (73) are all at two-under-par.
Defending Champion Cheyenne Woods had a day she would rather forget on the course, signing for a 78. Her day started out so well when she had a blast going on her first helicopter ride over the magnificent Gold Coast. “It was awesome,” Woods said, however her day went downhill.
“It was horrible, from the helicopter ride my day went downhill, it happens. I didn’t have any birdies today, I didn’t really play well at all. I was scrambling a lot, I don’t know what the cut will be, but I hope to be playing the week-end.”
Woods made it right on the cut number of five-over-par and 67 players will contest the weekend.
