Amelia Garvey had 10-stroke difference in her scores between the first and second rounds of the Aramco Championship.
The New Zealander began the day in 111th place after an opening 79 (+7) at Shadow Creek which included five bogeys and one double bogey.
However, one day later and Garvey is now comfortably within the cut line after firing a 69 (-3) to move into the top 40 of the leaderboard.
“I actually played really well yesterday, I just couldn’t putt,” she said. “Most of them went in today. We did a bit of extra work on the putting green this morning.
“I probably hit it just as good yesterday, so for it to be a 10-shot different just shows what this course can do to you. I knew I could go out there and put a round up, so I’m really proud of that.”
Garvey made a birdie on the second before dropping a shot on the third; however, she soon found momentum with a flurry of birdies on the fifth, seventh and eighth holes.
She added another on the 10th and 14th before an unfortunate triple bogey on 17, but she finished well with a birdie on the last to seal her round of three-under.
“I actually put the 2-iron in the bag again,” she continued. “I swapped out to a 3-iron recently, but seeing this golf course and knowing the wind would be up so I asked PING for another 2-iron.
“I have definitely been hitting that a lot and I love hard conditions. It’s not always fun when you’re out there but it makes you get a bit creative and hit challenging golf shots, which is fun.
“After today and seeing the changes we made with my putting, I’m really looking forward to the weekend and just getting two more rounds out here. Hopefully, the conditions are going to be a little bit easier.
“On the 17th I hit two good golf shots, it’s just a really tough hole especially when it’s 30 miles per hour wind into you. I will just forget about that and I’m excted for tomorrow.”
The Aramco Championship is co-sanctioned by both the Ladies European Tour (LET) and LPGA Tour with the field made up of a mixture of players.
As Garvey was heading down the 18th hole, one of her best friends Patty Tavatanakit – who had already finished her round – came over and to watch.
“It’s awesome to have Patty here,” she added. “We don’t get to see each other much throughout the year aside from these events. We played both practice rounds together again this week. It was really nice of her to come out on the last to support me. Maybe, hopefully, we can be playing together on Sunday – that would be nice.
“It’s amazing. This is why I moved to the LET. I think it’s awesome to be able to test your game against these girls and see where you stand in comparison to them. We don’t get to play against them all year apart from Scottish and AIG.
“To see all the top 20 committed to playing this event just shows how good the LET is doing at growing the tour, and the fact that we can play alongside these players is an amazing opportunity.”
Keep up with all the action at the Aramco Championship on our socials – @LETgolf on Instagram and X and Ladies European Tour on Facebook and YouTube – #AramcoChampionship.
