Thailand’s Pornanong Phatlum leads the British Open at the halfway stage and is one shot clear of England’s Georgia Hall and overnight leader Minjee Lee going into the weekend at Royal Lytham & St Annes.
Phatlum carded a 5-under-par 67 for the second day in a row to move to 10-under overall. The world No. 97 made five birdies in another bogey-free round and has now gone 36 holes without dropping a shot.
Australian Lee was on course to take her overnight lead into the weekend but bogeyed two of the final three holes to finish 2-under for the day.
Hall, who finished third at last year’s tournament, made four birdies in another impressive round. The 22-year-old is the leading British contender at Royal Lytham and finished 4-under for the day. Japan’s Mamiko Higa joins Hall and Minjee in a tie for second place.
Teresa Lu leads the chasing pack along with world No. 3 Sung Hyun Park and world No. 4 So Yeon Ryu. All three players finished their rounds in the red and are at 8-under, 7-under and 6-under, respectively.
Mina Harigae is the leading American hopeful at 5-under and is joined by England’s Florentyna Parker, New Zealand’s Lydia Ko and Canada’s Brooke Henderson, who made a hole-in-one at the par-3 9th.
Catriona Matthew, the last British player to win The Open, defending champion In-kyung Kim and world No. 1 Ariya Jutanugarn are all at 3-under.
Sandra Gal, Moriya Jutanugarn and Bronte Law all slipped down the leaderboard after shooting over par but will play the weekend after making the cut of 1-over.
Angle Yin, who was 3-under after the opening day, shot a 5-over 77 to miss the cut, along with fellow American Brittany Lang and England’s Charlie Hull, who finished 5-over after a round of 78.