Celine Herbin from France carded a second round of two under par 68 to set the clubhouse target at six under par on a sunny second morning at the Lacoste Ladies Open de France at Golf de Chantaco.
Herbin began her second round a stroke behind the overnight leader Gwladys Nocera and picked up birdies on the par-5 sixth and seventh to move to strokes clear of her compatriot before dropping shots on the ninth and 11th.
She almost made an albatross on the long 15th after hitting in close using a six-iron and then double bogeyed the 16th, but recovered with a pair of birdies on 17 and 18.
“I’m pretty happy with the result, minus two,” said Herbin, whose caddie is Vicente Ballesteros, the brother of the late Seve. “The end of the round was a little up and down. I had a very nice eagle on 15, which was two centimetres from being an albatross, and after I had a double and finished with two birdies. I have a very good feeling for this weekend. My game is in good shape.”
Herbin lives in Santander, just across the Spanish border, but she said: “It’s always very nice to play in France instead of wherever in the world and I feel very comfortable here. A lot of people are cheering and I had people from the golf course where I began to play golf.
“This is the fourth time that I’ve played in the Lacoste Ladies Open de France and I know the greens well so of course we feel more comfortable.”
Herbin has been playing on three tours in 2015, as she has conditional status on the LPGA and has been focusing on the Symetra Tour, ‘the Road to the LPGA’, in the United States.
“I was supposed to be playing in a Symetra Tour event this week but I changed my mind to play here,” she continued. “It was a good decision I think. For the moment, it looks good.”
