Germany’s Helen Briem is pleased to be back near the top of the leaderboard after two rounds at the Lacoste Ladies Open de France.
The 20-year-old has recorded back-to-back under-par rounds on the Ladies European Tour (LET) for the first time since June.
Briem, who won the 2025 La Sella Open, produced rounds of 66 (-5) and 67 (-4) on the first two days of competition at Golf Barrière to be in T2 with one round remaining.
The German star has admitted she has been struggling with form over the summer months with her main issue being the number of fairways and greens she’s been hitting; however, that has changed this week in France.
“It’s a huge step forward for me to have two rounds under-par in a row,” said Briem. “That’s great and I’m in a good position for tomorrow and we will see what happens. I have been hitting more greens or the amount that I usually hit, so I’ve had lots of birdie opportunities. It’s back to normality kind of in my game, I’m very happy with that.
“I wasn’t that much on the fairway today. I had a couple of shots where I couldn’t be as aggressive as I wanted to be. Overall, you can be very aggressive out there but you have to make sure, especially on the back nine, that you give yourself the right putts because those greens are really slopey. That’s very important.
“I will try to get that win. It’s now a year without a win from La Sella Open last year to last week. We will see. I will give it everything tomorrow and I hope it’s my time.”
2025 has been a big learning curve for Briem in her first full season on Tour and she has come close to victory on a few occasions.
June saw the LET winner finish as a runner-up in Tenerife and at home in Germany, as well as a further top-5 finish in Belgium.
Briem played this event in 2024 and is enjoying being back at a course she has played on Tour before.
She explained: “If you know the course, you know where to go and what to expect then it takes less energy to get to the place. You know what you have to do from previous years with practice rounds and it’s not as exhausting compared to if it’s new. Experience always helps.”
For the first two rounds, Briem played in a group alongside home favourite and major champion Celine Boutier.
The 20-year-old was part of the European Team at the PING Junior Solheim Cup in 2021 and 2023.
She added: “I played with Anna [Nordqvist] at the AIG Women’s Open and being in the same field as the Kordas at Evian, and now in the group with Celine [Boutier] here. It’s a great experience for me to see that development I’ve had from playing my first PING Junior Solheim Cup to the second one and now playing out here in the same tournaments and in the same groups is great.”
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