Laura Davies leads in New South Wales Women's Open

England’s Laura Davies enjoyed the English type weather to take the lead into the final round of the New South Wales Women’s Open in Sydney on Saturday. The former winner of the event took advantage of the better morning conditions to card a 2-under par 70 to finish at 5-under par 139 after 36 holes.
Overcast conditions greeted the morning field, with the wind picking up mid way through their round, while the afternoon players contended with strong gusty winds and squally showers making club selection and scoring difficult.
“Overall I played pretty well but it could have been a lot better than that had the putts gone in but I think the pins were difficult today, moreso than yesterday.” Davies said after the round. Her round included three birdies and one bogey, with her birdies all came on the par 5’s on the front nine, at the 4th, 6th and 8th holes. Her only bogey came on the 17th when she overshot the green for her second shot and couldn’t get up and down.
The former World No. 1 heads a jam-packed leaderboard with 14 players within four shots of the lead, including the three previous winners of the tournament; Davies, Joanne Mills and Sarah Oh.
The New South Wales quartet of Karen Lunn (71), Mills (70), Oh (73) and Rachel Bailey (72) and Queensland’s Katherine Hull (72) are all at four-under par, 140 total. Ireland’s Rebecca Coakley posted a 71 for 141 total, with West Australian Kristie Smith carding a 70, New South Wales Wendy Doolan, 72 and first round leader New Zealand’s Sarah Nicholson shot a 75 to be all at 141 and sharing seventh position.
Davies, will be in search of her second NSW Women’s Open title and with the experience of winning over 70 titles worldwide, she will be hard to beat.
A total of 61 players made the cut including 46 professionals who will compete for their share of the $100,000.
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