Leona Maguire and Stephanie Meadow carded disappointing rounds of 72 and 74 respectively as the AIG Women's Open, with American Amy Ewing surging clear at the head of the leaderboard.
Maguire's birdie on the par-three 17 saw her move to level par, a position from where she started the day. but she now is ten shots behind the leader. It was simply a case of the putter being cold
The Cavan native had earlier picked up shots on 2, 7 and 14, but bogeyed 4,6, 10 and 13 as she again signed for a 72.
"I felt like a played great, I just didn't play great," was Maguire's initial thoughts when she spoke to RTÉ Sport afterwards.
"I didn''t have good speed on the greens again today, they were quite slow today, especially in the afternoon.
But I felt I played well, hit a lot of nice shots, those three-putts are a killer for a momentum
An under-the-weather Meadow carded a round of 74 included, it included birdies on three and five, this after dropping shots on the second and fourth holes.
A run of pars followed from the sixth before she gave up another shot on 14. Meadow's round concluded with a bogey at the last as she ended up on one over at the half-way mark.
Amateur Anna Foster posted a second round of 75 to finish 18 over.
The projected cut stood at +2.
2018 Champion Georgia Hall was among those to progress on the qualifying number, with defending champion Ashleigh Buhai, Lydia Ko and Brooke Henderson among those to miss out
Amy Ewing, who held a one-shot lead following an opening 68 completed late on Thursday, was among the early starters on Friday and stormed clear of the field with a birdie on the third and four in a row from the sixth to be out in 30.
The 30-year-old from Mississippi also picked up further shots on the 11th and 16th before dropping her only shot of the day on the last to complete a superb 66.
The similarities with Brian Harman's victory at Royal Liverpool were hard to ignore with Harman leading by five at halfway on 10 under, maintaining his advantage following the third round and eventually winning by six.
Ewing also revealed she shared Harman's much-publicised passion for hunting, along with a nickname for their different college teams.
"He's a bulldog but he's a Georgia bulldog," Ewing said. "I'm a Mississippi State Bulldog. I guess we have that in common.
"But yeah, it's pretty cool, southern guy, I'm southern, just a little Mississippi girl. It is inspiring, what he did.
"I actually do some hunting. I know that's probably not going to be interpreted well by the media but I do, yes. For the most part my family, my husband and I, we do mostly deer hunting, so venison."
Asked what it would mean to win a maiden major title this weekend, Ewing added: "It would be huge. It's something I've obviously circled as something I want to accomplish in my career.
Ewing enjoys an advantage from compatriot Andrea Lee and Japan's Minami Katsu on five under, with South Korea's Kim Hyo-Joo and Lilia Vu, the USA's Alison Lee and Gaby Lopez from Mexico another stroke back on four under.
Additional reporting PA
