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| England’s Trish Johnson |
Johnson, 41, played her way into contention for her first Ladies European Tour title since the 2004 Wales Ladies Championship, firing three birdies and a bogey to reach a three-under-par total.
The veteran of 17 tournament wins, with 14 of them in Europe, started at the tenth hole and picked up her first birdie at the 535 yard par-five 12th. She dropped a shot at the third due to a misjudgement in club selection, however birdies at the fourth and seventh brought her back on track. She chipped to five feet at the par-four fourth before dispatching the birdie putt and holed a 15 foot birdie putt at the par-four seventh.
“I’m very happy to have done what I set out to do,” said Johnson, a seven time Solheim Cup player. “I’ve done a lot of work with my coach Scott Margetts over the off-season and I’ve been practising at Desert Springs Golf Resort in Spain, where the practise facilities are second to none. I’ve been practising especially on my short game.
“At the moment the process is more important than the result but I’m going to keep doing the correct things and let things take care of themselves. The conditions were tougher today than yesterday.”
Masters, who will play in the last match with Sanchez and Johnson in Saturday’s third round, said she enjoyed playing in the testing conditions: “It’s more fun playing in the wind than when its still. You need more imagination to take different lines off the tee,” said the second year tour player.
Jean, a 26-year-old from Kyabram, located two-and-a-half hours north of Melbourne, said: “I’m happy that I’ve finally played consistently because that’s what I’ve been working on at home over the summer. When I lose the plot a bit I can get it back now. I holed some really long putts from around six metres.”
Brewerton, 24, who has twice finished second in the Tenerife tournament, once as an amateur in 2003 and then again in her rookie year in 2004, said of her second round: “It was a weird day. We played five or six holes and it was lovely and then the wind went crazy. It was a mixed bag; I hit a lot of good shots and some bad shots.
“I think I’ve spent a bit too long trying to say the right things but deep down, all I want to do desperately is to get my first win. Its Solheim year as well so if you can get a couple of wins you’ve got a shout of making the European team.”
England’s Kiran Matharu, 18, playing in her first tournament as a member of the tour, followed her opening 71 with a 72 and she tied for eighth position on one-under with Belgium’s Ellen Smets and Australia’s Joanne Mills, who both had 74s.
Scotland’s Clare Queen shot the lowest score of the day; a 69 which took her to even par for the tournament and into a nine-way tie for 11th position. The cut fell at five-over-par.
