(RACV Royal Pines Resort, Gold Coast)
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rnThree of Australia&aposs young guns made major moves on Day 2 of the ANZ Ladies Masters at RACV Royal Pines Resort on the Gold Coast. Canberra&aposs Nikki Campbell leads the way on 10-under par after a fine round of 7-under par 65. She leads by one from Western Australia&aposs Kristie Smith, with Sunshine Coast’s Katherine Hull in third place on 8-under par.
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rnCampbell, who ply’s her trade on the LPGA of Japan, posted two sets of back-to-back-to-back birdies. Her first set of three birdies was from the third hole and she repeated the feat from the 10th hole after making the turn at 4-under. Six straight pars to finish her round was good enough to take a 1-shot lead into Saturday’s third round. In her press conference she attributed her putting as the key to her round, saying, “putting is definitely a key to playing this course well. The putts seemed to be dropping today so I just tried to put a good stroke on it.”
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rnWhile Campbell may be taking the lead into the weekend, it was rookie professional, Kristie Smith who lit up the leaderboard early in the day. Her round of 10-under par 62 equalled the tournament record set by Karrie Webb in round 3 of the 2007 event. It was an astonishing start to her round, with Smith firing seven straight birdies from the first hole; taking only 21 shots for the first seven holes.
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rnAfter a bogey at the difficult par-4 8th, she made the turn in 6-under par 31. Five more birdies on the back nine coupled with a bogey at the 16th saw her post her best round ever. The pleasing thing for Smith was that she ended her day the way she started it, with birdies at both the difficult par-4 17th and 18th holes.
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rnAfter her round, she described the feeling after her 7th consecutive birdie as “an outer body experience”, adding, “the putts just kept rolling in from the first hole, so I got on a roll.” She surpassed her previous best round of 66, which was set at the Royal Pines layout during the Aaron Baddeley World Junior Championship in 2005.
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rnHull, who has twice been the bridesmaid in the opening two tournaments this season, is sitting in prime position to go one better this week. She added a round of 5-under par 67 to her opening 69. Her round included six birdies and a solitary bogey on the 7th hole.
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rnAsked about her round and tomorrow, she said, “I hit 16 greens today so pretty simple. I’m playing pretty well so it’s just keeping it going.” Adding, “hopefully I can match the speed tomorrow on the greens and make some more putts.”
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rnFifty-six players are on even par or better, with pre-tournament favourites Ji-Yai Shin on 6-under par, while Karrie Webb and Yani Tseng a long way back on 1-under. The cut was made at 2-over par with 76 players to play for the money on the weekend. The leading amateur is Rebecca Flood who added a second consecutive 3-under par 69 to sit in a tie for 6th.
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rnPlay gets underway at 6.45am in round 3 with the leaders to hit off at 11.05am, with all players off the 1st tee.
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rnPhoto: Nikki Campbell by Anthony Powter
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