Home favourite Esther Henseleit holds the lead at the midway mark of the 2026 Amundi German Masters after a round of 71 (-2) on day two at Green Eagle Golf Courses.
On a slightly tougher day on the North Course, the two-time LET winner had a mixed start going bogey-birdie-bogey-birdie in her opening four holes.
The Solheim Cup star then rolled in birdies on seven and nine before a bogey on 12, she made a further birdie on 16 to ensure she was at the top of the leaderboard with a score of nine-under-par.
“It was a bit up and down,” said Henseleit. “Only had my first par with a bit of a par-save on five, but after that it was very solid. I maybe left a few out there, but overall, very good. It definitely played harder than yesterday today with the wind and overall, I’m very happy with where I’m at.
“On the back nine, you always had crosswinds and you didn’t know if it was slightly hurting or slightly helping. It was hard to pick your numbers going into the greens and pretty tough to get it close. There’s still a lot of wedges out there, so trying to take advantage of that. I needed to see a few more putts drop, I got the edges out there a little bit today.
“It was nine-under last year that won it. I am definitely happy with the score. It has been a bit more scoreable than last year for sure. I’m always happy leading a tournament after two days.”
Czechia’s Sara Kouskova fired the round of the day producing a 66 (-7) to move into solo second place on eight-under-par.
The two-time LET winner began her day on the 10th hole and holed out for eagle from a bunker on the very next hole.
She made birdies on 14 and 17 before making three on the trot on holes three, four and five. Kouskova dropped her only shot of the day on the sixth but bounced back with a birdie on seven for her round of seven-under.
“It could have been eight-under if I didn’t leave that last one short, but I’m very happy with today,” said Kouskova. “I wish every day could be this calm, so I enjoyed it out there.
“The bunker hole-out was fun at the beginning on hole 11, it just trickled a little right and went it. That was a nice start. We had a lot of good clubs in.
“I think we were really top notch with the numbers which is really important with all those complicated greens. Some putts dropped in, we had a longer one on seven. A really good roll.
“We tried to take care at the beginning of the season to prepare for some more wind because I wasn’t strong enough before. Hopefully, I’m getting better and if the wind picks up tomorrow, it’ll be a good test.”
Four players are in a share of third place with Norway’s Dorthea Forbrigd joined by German trio Alexandra Försterling, Chiara Noja and Leonie Harm all on six-under-par.
2024 champion Försterling carded her second consecutive round of 70 (-3) to move herself just three shots behind Henseleit.
The four-time LET winner only had one bogey on her scorecard rolling in birdies on the fifth, seventh, 15th and 16th holes.
“It was actually really nice weather today,” said Försterling. “For us, it played pretty similar to yesterday because we got lucky with the wind now this morning.
“Towards the end, it picked up for some reason and towards the end, I also made more birdies, so maybe it helps me. Overall, I’m really happy that I was able to shoot -3 again, it’s always a good score.”
Norway’s Forbrigd had another solid day in Hamburg as she had three birdies and one bogey on her scorecard to also be T3.
“It was tougher today. The pins were in more tricky spots, so they were harder to get to. I would say I’ve hit it very well,” said Forbrigd.
“I’ve hit the ball how I want to for the most part, just trying to execute good shots but it was hard to get close to the flag today, so it was more putting. My short putts were really good, I didn’t do great at lag-putting, but I really saved it on my short putts. I made one bogey, which was a three-putt, but you can’t two-putt them all!”
LET winner Noja is making a comeback from a shoulder injury this week and has also carded back-to-back rounds of 70 (-3) to be in contention.
“It’s exciting to be back. I was obviously out for seven or eight months, so I’m really happy to be back,” said Noja.
“I think I needed that time away as well to kind of work on every part of the game, come back and actually feel like I was able to play good golf. I got a little twinge in the rib this week, which is a little annoying, but hopefully that settles down over the next few days looking to Morocco. I’m very happy.
“The biggest change this week was an attitude shift. When you go from being relatively successful, let’s say, and then you have periods where you’re really struggling, it kind of becomes difficult to have a positive attitude sometimes. I was lacking that excitement to compete.
“Going into this week, that was my main message and everything else just happened. My dad is on the bag this week, which was important for me in my first week back. We made a deal. He said no matter where you hit it, you’re going to smile, you’re going to thank the patrons that are helping out, and you’re going to be an example. That’s what I’ve just been trying to do.”
Six players are one shot further back with South Africa’s Casandra Alexander, Germany’s Helen Briem, England’s Esme Hamilton and Meghan MacLaren, Italy’s Roberta Liti and France’s Agathe Sauzon all in T7.
Australia’s Kelsey Bennett produced one of the highlights of the day as she moved up the leaderboard thanks in part to an ace she made on the par-3 second hole.
The cut fell at +2 with 64 players making it through to the weekend in Hamburg. Round three of the 2026 Amundi German Masters will begin at 8.50 am (local time) with the leaders teeing off at 12.48 pm.
Keep up to date with all the action throughout on our socials – @LETgolf on Instagram, TikTok and X, and Ladies European Tour on YouTube and Facebook – #AmundiGermanMasters.
