Leona Maguire moves up leaderboard despite late bogeys

Two bogeys in the closing three holes ruined an otherwise perfect day for World No 1 amateur Leona Maguire in the second round of the ISPS HANDA Ladies European Masters at The Buckinghamshire Golf Club near London.

Despite those bogeys on the 16th and 18th , Maguire actually rose up the leaderboard into the top 10 after carding a two-under 70 to share ninth spot on five under.

England's Alex Peters stormed to the top of the leaderboard by equaling the course record at The Buckinghamshire with a 63, coming home in just 29 shots with seven birdies on the back nine.

That was good enough to move the 21-year-old from Nottingham to 11 under, two clear of English teenager Charley Hull who carded a five-under 67. France's Sophie Giquel-Bettan, who led after the first round, signed for a second-round 70 and is eight under going into the weekend.

Maguire, a sponsor’s invite for the event, made an early gain on the par-five second and then hit an iron to 10 feet on the 157-yard par-three fifth before collecting the second birdie of her front nine.

She made up for failing to gain a shot at the par-five ninth when she got up and down from a bunker for a birdie four on the par-five 10th before recording four straight pars.

A pitch and putt birdie three on the 336-yard par-four 15th moved the 20-year-old from Cavan to seven under and within sight of the leaders, only for those closing bogeys to slow her charge.

“I played pretty well, I played pretty steady until the end,” said Maguire. “The wind got up a bit on the last few holes and that made it pretty tricky. The greens were firming up quite a bit as well compared to yesterday. All in all I’m pretty happy. I would have liked to have finished better but I’m still in a good position going into the weekend.”

Speaking of her dropped shots over the last three holes, she added: “On 16 I went over the back. I got a really firm bounce, didn’t get up and down and then bogeyed it. I three-putted 18.”

Looking forward to the weekend action, Maguire is hoping to gain a bit of momentum on the greens.

“I think there’s a low score out there. I haven’t holed as many putts as I would have liked but I’ve hit the ball well so if it all comes together at the weekend you never know."

Meanwhile, Rebecca Codd was a massive 11 shots better off in her second round after a disastrous 83 on Thursday, but a level-par 70 left her towards the rear of the field on 11 over.