Ex-footballer shoots ‘best ever’ round of 66 to share Aramco Saudi Ladies International lead

RIYADH: England’s Georgia Hall held on to a share of the lead at the halfway point of the Aramco Saudi Ladies International presented by Public Investment Fund after a second consecutive 69 on the Red Sea coast.

The former British Open champion made the most of her early morning tee time to bag a trio of birdies en route to a day two three-under-par, earned in far calmer weather than the day before.

Ferocious 40 kmh winds had brought havoc to afternoon scoring at Royal Greens Golf and Country Club on Thursday, making for conditions Hall described as “the hardest” she had ever played in.

A thoroughly controlled Friday round — blotted only by a single bogey — ensured the 25-year-old’s six-under-par total would be the score to beat heading into the weekend, as the Jeddah course’s infamous bluster returned to challenge the day’s later tee times.

“The pins were a little trickier actually than yesterday,” said Hall, the world No. 25. “Yesterday had excessive wind.  Obviously, it was pretty much nothing this morning, but it’s kind of up a little bit now.”

Asked how she felt to be holding the lead despite having to endure what is sure to be the worst conditions of the week on Thursday, she said: “It gives me a lot of confidence. That’s what happens with golf, I think. Sometimes you get a good draw, a bad draw, and that’s what happens. You’ve got to accept it, which I did.

“On the weekend, whoever is close to my score will be near my tee time, so we all have it roughly the same. I don’t mind playing in the wind, so we’ll just see what happens.”

Sharing that tee time will be LET rookie Kristyna Napoleaova of the Czech Republic, who only took up golf five years ago after succumbing to an injury that cut short a highly