Casandra Alexander is embracing the pressure of contending once again in a major championship, and it showed on Friday as she steadied what could have been a wobbly old second round in the Amundi Evian Championship.
Alexander had made three birdies and three bogeys by the time she played her 11th hole at Evian Resort Golf Club in Evian-les-Bains, Haute-Savoie, France, having started on the 10th. But a birdie on the second – her 11th – started a run of four consecutive pars and then she birdied two of the final three holes.
Her three-under-par 68 took her to seven-under-par for the championship and put her in share of seventh. She was just three strokes off the lead heading into the weekend. Up front, it was Korea’s Somi Lee in the lead after her six-under 65 in the second round gave her a one-stroke edge over Grace Kim of Australia.
“It was a bit of a tough day out there,” said Alexander. “Wasn’t the most tidy scorecard or tidy golf I’ve had. Didn’t hit it the best off the tee. But I think I made something great out of not-such-a-great situation. Had a lot of good up and downs and putting has been really good. Looking forward to the weekend.”
And, while her wish for a pairing with Nelly Korda has not been granted – yet – the weekend in a major championship will start in the third-from-last game and in sight of the very top of the leaderboard again after her superb share of seventh last year in the AIG Women’s Open.
“It’s going to be really cool. I would love to play with Nelly,” said Alexander. “I mean, the crowds would be nuts and the pressure would be nuts, but I would love to play with her. I don’t think it’ll be tomorrow, but hopefully sometime over the weekend or at least at The Open. So that would be ideal. Yes, like we said, it’s going to be good pairings and I think it’s going to be chaotic this week to be honest.”
Helping her stay calm in the chaos is the fact that her husband Adrian has been walking outside the ropes with her this week, having missed her maiden Ladies European Tour victory in the Tipsport Czech Ladies Open on June 22. “It’s really nice,” she said. “Firstly, it’s just a little bit easier. Takes care of things off the golf course while I’m busy. He’s quite funny. His dad is very obsessed with my golf. It’s his favourite thing. Every single time I make a birdie I see him on the phone and he’s messaging his dad, telling him I made a birdie because it updates faster than the app. He’s been basically the live scoreboard for everyone. It’s always lovely to have him out. Yeah, he’s out for the next couple so it’s going to be great.”
Her calm attitude shone through with her approach to her round, which was threatening to go south with those bogeys in the first half of her day. “The wind picked up I would say about the last five holes of my round,” she said. “Really started blowing. So I think I hit four good shots on three, four, and five; I ended up like 40 foot from the hole. Just carried long or just came out short. But I hit it so good. I thought it was on the money. I just said to my caddie, Charlie, let’s be patient. Firstly, it’s a major. It’s tough conditions. It’s tough for everyone. We’ve got a bit unlucky, so let’s just work with what we’ve got and stay patient. I did say we have two par-fives finishing up and we can reach both, so let’s just stay patient. Yeah, I guess it worked out and I did stay patient. It’s one thing saying it and another thing doing it.”
Behind Alexander, Paula Reto had an even-par 71 to make the weekend at two-under-par through 36 holes in a share of 31st, while Ashleigh Buhai’s 71 was not enough to lift her inside the cut line and she exited the championship on seven-over-par.
