Lee-Anne Pace battled her way to a three-over-par 74 on Friday in the second round of the Ladies European Tour’s Jabra Ladies Open at the Evian Resort Golf Club in France.
A string of four bogeys in a row on the back nine from the 10th to the 13th set her back as she moved to three-over-par for the tournament and a share of 30th heading into the final round of the 54-hole tournament. That put her 10 strokes behind the lead which was shared by first-round leader Anne van Dam of the Netherlands and Linn Grant of Sweden. That pair had a two-stroke lead over England’s Hayley Davis who was on five-under.
Grant, who won three times on the Sunshine Ladies Tour in 2022, carded six birdies en route to a 67 to match the Dutch star’s tally. “I was solid from the tee,” she said. “I hit some really good shots into the green, my putting wasn’t too good though. I felt like I had a couple more birdies in me.”
Beginning her round on the sixth, the 23-year-old got off to a hot start when she posted red numbers on the seventh and ninth. Hunting a fifth LET win, Grant birded the 15th before back-to-back bogeys on the 16th and 17th briefly halted her momentum. A bounce back birdie on the 18th put her back on track, with two more coming in at the third and fourth then catapulting the Swede into a share for the lead.
Grant said: “The birdie on 18 was really important. It’s a typical birdie hole which I can normally reach [in two], so to not make a birdie there would have been disappointing. The game plan tomorrow is to go out and have fun together. I love playing with Anne, she’s really fun to play with so we’ll see how it goes.”
The other South African in the field, Stacy Bregman, carded a four-over 75 to miss the cut by one on seven-over for the tournament.
