(11 February 2011 – Gold Coast, Australia).jpg)
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Young West Australian Kristie Smith and American Stacy Lewis both fired flawless 7-under par 65’s in the second round of the ANZ RACV Ladies Masters to be joint leaders at the top of a congested leaderboard. On a fine and calm day low scoring was the order of the day with all but 24 players shooting under par.
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The duo sit at 12-under par and lead by one stroke over Rolex World No. 2 Yani Tseng. Both Smith and Lewis had identical rounds in that they both carded five birdies and an eagle, both eagling the par-5 3rd. Lewis hit “a little 3 wood” in for her second shot to about 15 feet and holed the putt, while Smith holed a 20-footer, left to right down the hill.
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It was asked of Lewis after her round that “you must like the course?” and then politely responded, “I do like the course. I played here last year for the first time and I finished tied for eighth. So I knew coming in what the course was like. The key is sinking putts and I did that today.”
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The Texan who was diagnosed with scoliosis when she was 11-years old and used playing golf as an excuse to get out of wearing her back brace. She wore the brace 18 hours a day for seven and a half years to correct curvature in her spine, removing it only when she played golf. She had back surgery during her senior year of high school and now has five screws in her back. When asked if she still has to worry about her back, she said, “No not really. That’s the reason why I worked out, to keep my back healthy and so as long as I’m stretching and working out and taking care of it then I’m fine.”
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For the West Australian, Smith, she was a little surprised to be co-leader after missing the cut last week at the Australian Open saying, “I haven’t been swinging it that good. Last week I missed the cut. I was working on a few things with my coach. This week I have a good feeling about the golf course. Obviously, having had low numbers here helps with the confidence. I’ve got good feelings about this course, I never really liked the greens, but I’m stroking it so well at the moment, everything seems to be going in.” 
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When asked about what she has been working on, Smith replied, “It’s a little bit technical and a little bit of visualisation as well. I’ve just been working on the range after each round, and working on new fade shots, hitting it left to right. So just working on hitting some fades with my coach. I had a bit of anxiety, I guess you could say, over the last two rounds. I hadn’t really expected to be at the top of the leader board at all, and that’s probably why I’m there to be honest.”
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rnLooming in contention is World No.2 Tseng, who posted a 6-under par 66 to move to 11-under par and outright third. Six players share fourth position at 10-under par; South Africa’s Ashleigh Simon (66), Germany’s Sandra Gal (64), America’s Ryann O’Toole (66), Korean Shin-Se Ahn (67), England’s Melissa Reid (67) and Spaniard Maria Hernandez (68).
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rn24 players are within four shots of the leaders which includes 2009 ANZ Ladies Masters Champion Katherine Hull (66) who is at 9-under par and three time champion Laura Davies (67) sitting on 8-under par. It wasn’t a good day for tournament favourite Karrie Webb, who could only manage a 1-under par 72 to fall back into a tie for 25th at 7-under par. Webb said after the round “It was one of the worst rounds of golf I’ve played.”
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The low round of the day came from American Mollie Fankhauser, who posted a 9-under par 63. In her first nine holes she posted birdies on every hole except the 2nd and 6th to make the turn in 30. However her run of birdies could not continue and she had to be satisfied with just two more.
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The cut was made at 4-under par, the lowest in tournament history and 70 players will contest the final two rounds.
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