Moa Folke puts on a show while there's heartbreak for Aideen Walsh

Just as the light began to fade late on the second day's play at the KPMG Irish Women’s Open at Dromoland Castle, 27-year-old Swede Moa Folke struck a seven iron to 25 feet on the closing hole and rolled in the putt for an eagle three to take a two-shot lead at the halfway point.

There were nine other birdies in the round of the number 606th ranked player in the world, and it added up to the best score of the week by three clear strokes - a 10-under par 62. That was also the lowest round of her career and left Folke on 12-under-par for the tournament.

"I’m really happy and I don’t understand quite what happened," she said afterwards.

"Everything just came together and even when I made mistakes I ended up in good spots and then I made a lot of putts, I’m not going to lie," she added, laughing.

Folke is two shots clear of a group of three players on 10-under - Spain’s Carmen Alonso, Czech Republic’s Klara Spilkova and Denmark’s Smilla Soenderby.

One notable player just three off the lead on 9-under is the longest striker of a golf ball on either the LPGA Tour or the Ladies European Tour, Anne Van Dam of the Netherlands.

Early in the day Leona Maguire was close to the lead as she moved to 6-under-par with a birdie on her ninth hole, but after missing an eight-foot putt on the next, her tee shot on her 11th hole hit a cart path and bounced into trees.

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From there she made four consecutive bogeys to drop back to 2-under-par and she is ten shots off the lead after a 75.

No other Irish player made the cut, which fell at 1-under. That was a huge disappointment for local Ennis schoolteacher Aideen Walsh who valiantly birdied the 18th for a 73 and after waiting for the final players to finish, she missed the cut by a single