Ireland's Leona Maguire and Stephanie Meadow are both safely through to the weekend at the Evian Championship in Paris, the fourth of the year's five majors in ladies' golf, with Canada's Brooke Henderson leading the way.
Meadow bettered her opening round of level-par 71 by two strokes, to sit two-under-par overall, good enough to keep her inside the top 35 with plenty of players still out on course during the second day's play.
Maguire, for her part, had to work slightly harder to keep her challenge going. She opened with a one-under-par 70 on Thursday but could only manage an even-par 71 on her second round to sit one shot behind her countrywoman.
Henderson picked up where she left off by firing her second straight 64 to lead the by three strokes over American Nelly Korda.
The 24-year-old from Smiths Falls, Ontario, carded eight birdies and only one bogey at the Evian Resort Golf Club, starting strongly by sinking a birdie putt from more than 30 feet on the first hole and adding a second birdie on the next hole.
Although she bogeyed the third, a hot putter helped her to make birdie putts on the ninth, 11th and 12th holes, before she closed with three straight birdies to finish on a 36-hole total of 128, 14-under-par.
Korda sits alone in second on 11-under-par after the 23-year-old from Florida shot 67
She saved her best until last, with two mighty blows to the 18th green setting up an eagle putt from two-and-a-half feet, which she converted. Having saved par from the water in the first round, after removing her shoes and socks and standing ankle deep in the lake protecting the green, she decided that she would rather go long and used a 5-hybrid from 192 yards.
Korean pair Sei Young Kim and So Yeon Ryu are tied for third position on nine-under-par.
The 2021 Race to Costa del Sol winner, Atthaya Thitikul, who finished fifth in the Amundi Evian Championship last year, is tied for fifth on eight under with the 2014 champion, Hyo-Joo Kim of Korea, American pair Andrea Lee and Sophia Schubert, Spain's Carlota Ciganda and Perrine Delacour of France.
Thitikul shrugged off a triple bogey on the par-four third hole and bounced back with eight birdies to shoot a five-under-par 66. She remains bullish heading into the weekend six shots off the pace and in search of her first major title.
