A shaky second round on Friday saw Paula Reto slip to a share of eighth at the halfway mark of the Amundi Evian Championship at Evian Resort Golf Club in Evian-les-Bains, France.
Reto, who led by two after an opening seven-under-par 64, made two birdies, four bogeys and a double-bogey on her way to a four-over-par 75 in the second round, and she will go in to the weekend four shots off the pace. The leader was local hot favourite Celine Boutier of France, who signed for a two-under 69 to move to seven-under. That gave her a one-stroke edge over Patty Tavatanakit of Thailand, who had a 67 in the second round, and Japan’s Yuka Saso, who had a 69 to move to six-under.
Reto started solidly enough, picking up a birdie on the second hole, but she dropped a shot with her first bogey on the sixth. She erased that drop with an immediate birdie, but that was as far as she was to get as her confidence off the tee deserted her.
It all started unravelling for Reto when her drive on 12 was pushed a long way right, and although she was able to push her second back into play from right next to a boundary fence, her confidence was visibly leaking. She ended up making double there, and she followed it with two more bogeys immediately after that on 13 and 14. She dropped another on 17 as she came home in 41, five-over. She hit just five of 13 fairways in regulation, a graphic illustration of just what was wrong with her game.
The other South African in the field, Ashleigh Buhai, carded a second-successive one-over-par 72 to climb 25 places on the leaderboard to a share of 39th to make her way safely to the weekend.
For Reto, all is not lost: She needs to keep things simple off the tee for the remainder of the championship and that should give her the kind of opportunities she had to make putts for birdies she had in the first round.
