Johanna Gustavsson fired a bogey-free round of 67 (-5) on day two of the Amundi German Masters to hold a one-stroke lead at the halfway stage.
The Swedish star began the day a couple of shots behind the overnight leader and rolled in her first birdie on hole 14 at Golf & Country Club Seddiner See.
Gustavsson then added another one on the first before three consecutive birdies on holes three, four and five sealed her round of 67 and put her to the top of the leaderboard on 11-under-par.
“The new putter is still working,” said the 30-year-old, who came third in the 2022 Race to Costa del Sol. “I played quite similar today to be honest.
“It was quite similar because I shot quite a few under on the front nine yesterday and it was the same today. It was solid. I had a three-metre putt on the 18th for par which was nice. That was probably the biggest save today.
“I hit better drives today and everything seems to be falling into place which is nice. The game plan is to just keep going to be honest. Take one shot at a time and see what happens.
“I don’t mind going into tomorrow as the leader. It will be fun. If you shoot bogey-free you’re doing alright, so it will be a nice calm phone call with Alex [my husband and swing coach] later.”
One shot further back in second place on 10-under-par is Czechia’s Kristyna Napoleaova, who produced the joint-best round of the day after carding a 66 (-6).
The Czech player began her round on the 10th and started with a birdie but quickly dropped shots on the 11th and 12th holes.
However, she soon got on a roll making four birdies on the trot on holes 13 through to 16 before adding three more in her final nine holes.
“There were a lot of chances and a lot of birdies, I would say my putting was on point,” said the 27-year-old.
“I would say we struggled a bit on the second and third holes but Jan [my caddie] managed to calm me down a lot and then we managed to get another chance and made a 12-footer. It got us back on track, otherwise who knows where we would end up.
“It was this position where you’re thinking I should have made it and it’s simple and you end up having a lot of troubles. We managed to get back on track, talked a lot and we agreed what we want to do and just stuck with it. It worked out quite well.”
Two players sit in a tie for third place on the leaderboard with Northern Ireland’s Olivia Mehaffey and England’s Cara Gainer both on nine-under-par.
Overnight leader Mehaffey had a solid second round shooting a 71 (-1) which included five birdies and four bogeys.
She explained: “It’s always tough when you shoot a really low score and your expectations go up a little bit and you have to manage that. I felt like it was tougher out there today, it was really windy and gusty as well.
“It was a bit more of a challenge and battle. Rounds like yesterday don’t happen that often when everything goes your way so you have to handle getting a bad lie in the bunker and things not going well all the time, but I think I did that well today.
“I have been putting well the last couple of days, I like the greens – they are fast and have quite a lot of break, which I like. It was solid, I missed a few more greens today and had a few looser shots and managed to make a few good pars which kept the momentum going.”
While Gainer is bogey-free after 36 holes having followed up her first round of 68 (-4) with a second round of 67 (-5).
The Englishwoman said: “I have really enjoyed it. I have been bogey-free for the past two days and I can’t really remember the last time I did that. I’m really happy with how the first two days have gone.
“I think this course is pretty similar to what I play at home, rolling fairways, a bit links style and I like to play in the wind. The conditions are good for me, I like to hit low shots and have fun with it. I holed some nice putts today definitely, it’s a shame I missed the six-footer on the last for birdie to shoot 66 but you can’t have all of them.
“I love to be in that situation. If I can get into the final couple of groups every week, then you know you’re doing something right.”
England’s Alice Hewson sits in outright fifth place on eight-under-par after firing a round of 66 (-6) in Germany.
“It felt really good out there today,” said the LET winner. “It felt very in control, I pieced everything together nicely and I’m very happy.
“It was definitely challenging out there this morning. It was both windy and rainy, which made it a bit tough, but I feel me and Benj [my caddie] negotiated our way around those first few holes really well. I hit a lot of fairways and quite a few greens and gave ourselves a lot of opportunities and made the most of them today.”
In seventh place on seven-under is England’s Meghan MacLaren, after she carded a round of 71 (-1) on day two with Germany’s Chiara Noja and India’s Diksha Dagar one shot further back on six-under-par.
French duo Celine Herbin and Nastasia Nadaud round out the top 10 on five-under-par alongside Italy’s Virginia Elena Carta.
The cut fell at +4 with 70 players making it through to the weekend in Germany and the third round will begin at 6.45 am local time on Saturday.
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