EVANS, Ga. — Lottie Woad of England moved one round closer to becoming the first back-to-back winner of the Augusta National Women’s Amateur, posting a 2-under 70 on Thursday to share the 36-hole lead with fast-closing Oregon sophomore Kiara Romero.
Woad, a junior at Florida State and the No. 1 player in the women’s amateur ranking, next heads to Augusta National for a practice round Friday and the final round Saturday.
She takes with her plenty of experience, not only from having competed at the home of the Masters but having rallied to win on the final day.
“I’ve got all the experience from last year of the 48 hours between,” Woad said of the Friday break for all contestants to play Augusta National. “It’s pretty positive to me.”
Romero was dynamic, and she had to be after a rough stretch in the middle of her second nine holes. She crashed out of the lead with a double bogey on No. 4 and a bogey on No. 5, only to close with three straight birdies for a 68.
They were at 9-under 135 going into what should be a compelling final round with five players within two shots of the lead.
Carla Bernat Escuder of Spain had a 68 and was one shot behind, along with Andre Revuelta of Spain (66) and Megha Ganne, who had a shaky patch early and another bad hole late. She had a 73, 10 shots worse than her opening round, but was still very much in the mix.
“Tried to create momentum within holes and grinded it out for what I thought was a pretty good 73,” said Ganne, who holed a 25-foot birdie putt on her final hole to get within one shot.
The real drama came at the bottom. All 71 players get to play a practice round at Augusta National on Friday, but only the top 30 and ties make the cut to play in the final round.
Kelly Xu birdied her last hole to make it on the number. So did Ko Kurabayashi of Japan, who shot a 65 to advance to Saturday.
Emma McMyler fell below the cut line with a bogey on the 17th, only to birdie the 18th to make the cut at 1-under 143.
Among those at 7-under 137 was Asterisk Talley, who last year was runner-up in the U.S. Junior Girls and the U.S. Women’s Amateur. She also shared low amateur honors at the U.S. Women’s Open at Lancaster.
Talley opened with a 71 and tried to avoid any drama making the cut. Turns out that wasn’t an issue when she made five birdies in a six-hole stretch starting at No. 9 and wound up with a 66.
“I was sitting close to the cut line, so I knew I had to play some good golf to make the cut,” Talley said. “I started off pretty steady on the front nine, and then I caught some fire on the back.”
