Californian Lizette Salas shot a second round 67 and holds the clubhouse lead on day two of the AIG Women’s British Open, at eight-under-par, alongside Sung Hyun Park after 10 holes and Hinako Shibuno after nine.
The trio are one ahead of European Solheim Cup hopefuls Celine Boutier (66) and Bronte Law (67), Charley Hull after seven holes and first round leader Ashleigh Buhai after one hole.
Ariya Jutanugarn, the champion at Woburn three years ago, is on six under par alongside the defending champion Georgia Hall, Carlota Ciganda and the new world No.1 Jin-Young Ko.
Salas, whose sole professional win came at the 2014 Kingsmill Championship, is a three-time United States Solheim Cup player and member of two winning teams in 2015 and 2017.
On her second round, she said: “It was super fun. I was here in 2016 so I know the golf course pretty well. I had a solid warm-up and played well last week at Evian, so a lot of positive momentum and got off to a really hot start. Just tried to get myself as many birdie opportunities as possible and I struck it well, and I was able to minimise my mistakes and recover when I did miss: awesome day.”
She started the round with a run of four consecutive birdies, adding another at the 10th and said afterwards: “I was just in the zone. You know, I was frustrated after I didn’t birdie the par 5, and my caddie is like, just remember, you’re still 4-under. It’s a good thing. Pars are great. It’s a major and not meant to be easy. We just kept a focused mentality.
“Because these greens are so slopey, it’s a lot of visualisation, which is kind of like my golf.”
Boutier rattled in four birdies and then holed her third shot on the par-5 15th hole for eagle, to reach seven-under. She said afterwards: “It was a very good day, a very good game all around from driver to putter. I felt like I had a lot of birdie putts throughout the round, and I didn’t make a lot of mistakes, and 15 was a bonus.
“I knew what I was going to get here because a lot of players told me, you know, it’s not a links and whatever. But I honestly just love the course. I think it’s in amazing shape and honestly I just enjoy playing it and the weather has been great so far.”
Law made five birdies at the first, fifth, 10th, 14th and 15th in a steady round and said: “I’m very happy with how I played. Played some very solid golf. Holed a couple more putts today. Kind of went out with that intention. There’s some tricky putts out there and managed to pick up a couple birdies in places where I didn’t expect, so that’s always nice.”
On playing with the European Solheim Cup captain over the first two days, she added: “It’s like when you’re younger at school and you’re in front of the teacher so they can keep an eye on you. It felt a little bit like that, but I kept my focus out there. Obviously with it being a major, the goal is to play well and it’s not so much that I’m worried about Solheim, it’s that I have a job to do.
“You make the putts when you can. I think it’s just about rolling along your lines. The slopes on those greens — you can’t really worry too much about the hole. It’s more just rolling on the intended line.”
