Swedish rookie Ingrid Lindblad produced two strings of four consecutive birdies on Friday, and she jumped into a tie for first place at the JM Eagle LA Championship in Los Angeles as Leona Maguire continued her steady start.
Lindblad carded a nine-under 63 at El Caballero Country Club, leaving her at 13-under and level with first-round co-leader Ashleigh Buhai of South Africa, who posted a 68 on Friday.
Australia's Minjee Lee charged into second place at 12 under with a second-round 65.
The other first-round co-leader, China's Yan Liu, is tied for fourth at 11u-nder after a 70. Lauren Coughlin and Japan's Miyu Yamashita also are at 11 under.
Maguire, meanwhile, shot her second consecutive round of 68 to sit on eight-under, just five back.
The Cavan golfer failed to pick up steam on her way out, a birdie and a bogey arriving just before the turn, but she took off from there with a run of birdies from the 11th to the 14th moving her into a tie for 20th.
Lindblad appeared in just three previous tournaments since joining the tour this year and her best result was a tie for 38th at the Ford Championship last month.
"I just read the greens really well so it was like every putt I stood over I'm like, 'OK, this has a chance to go in,'" Lindblad said. "Made a couple of these like good 10-footers, 17 footers, so it wasn't just tap-ins, tap-ins for par. Feel like (the score) could have been lower, too."
The results came after Lindblad made a tweak to her game following the first round.
"Yesterday the first couple holes I couldn't hit the center of the face with the driver," she said. "It was like high, low. I don't know if anyone saw my driving distance on hole 11. It was 206 yards and it was because I hit a low right and it caught a tree.
"So kind of hit a couple balls on the range yesterday, worked on my ball position, and just put it a hair higher up in my stance and hit my driver a lot better today."
Additional reporting: Reuters
