Lewis Leads by One at Halfway

Stacy Lewis plays her approach shot to the fifth green during the second round World No 3 Stacy Lewis of the United States shot a three-under 69 on Friday to sit a shot ahead of the field heading into the weekend at the Evian Masters presented by Société Générale. Lewis had an eagle, three birdies and two bogeys in her second round at the Evian Royal Resort, giving her a 12 under total of 132. The 27-year-old from Texas started the day two clear of her nearest rival after firing a course record 63 on Thursday. She pulled further ahead with a birdie at the fourth and an eagle at the seventh at the Evian Royal Resort on Friday morning. However, her momentum stalled with bogeys at the 12th and 14th before she compensated with birdies at holes 15 and 18. “Today was actually a little bit more of a struggle for me.  I wasn't really sure how I would play coming off a good score yesterday,” said Lewis, who ended second in 2011.  “It's hard when you make pars and you feel like you're going backwards because of all the birdies I made yesterday. It wasn't the best, but I made two birdies late and fought through it.” The 2011 Kraft Nabisco champion is hoping to add a fourth LPGA Tour title to her resumé after two wins already this year on the tour. South Korean Ilhee Lee is a shot back on 11 under after rounds of 66 and 67 in her first appearance at the Evian Masters, having qualified after a career best tie for fourth place at the recent US Women’s Open. “This event feels like bonus game, so it's just, I mean, take it easy and then just hang out playing,” said the 23-year-old from Seoul. With an eight under 64, her compatriot Inbee Park joined the 2005 champion Paula Creamer from the United States in a share of third place at nine under, with Japan’s Mika Miyazato a shot further back in fifth.   Beatriz Recari of Spain put herself in a strong position at the midway stage of the tournament after posting a six under 66 on another day of blazing sunshine at Evian Masters Golf Club. At seven under par in total, the 25-year-old from Pamplona was in a three-way share of sixth place with amateur Hyo Joo Kim and fellow Korean Hee Young Park. Having missed the cut on her first two visits to Evian, Recari prepared by playing shots from uneven lies and said:  “I think my game wasn’t right for this kind of course because you never have a flat lie, so that was definitely a challenge for me. Coming into this week we had two weeks off and I made sure that I practiced a lot of uneven lies with the ball above my feet, below my feet, different kinds of awkward stance. I’ve worked really hard in the winter to get my game in general to the next level and I’m really happy with how I’m playing this season and think I’ve definitely given it a little extra and I’ve been playing very solid so I’m very happy and hope that I keep it up on the weekend.” Scotland’s Carly Booth also survived the weekend, despite playing the second round with a knee injury.  She carded rounds of 72 and 73 to be one over par at midway. Speaking after her second round, the 20-year-old Scot said that she suspected the injury could have been aggravated by playing in the annual Evian Masters charity celebrity football match the previous evening, in aid of the ELA.   “I woke up this morning and I couldn’t put any weight on my left leg,” said Booth. “I still can’t straighten it properly and had the whole day with not being able to transfer my weight onto my left side, so I don’t know. I seem to have found a way on the range to take it to the round. “I actually hit it pretty well today, to be honest. I missed a couple of putts but I mean, now I think I’m getting a bit more used to the greens so hopefully at the weekend I can improve there. “Maybe it’s because of tightness beforehand and that’s maybe just inflamed it doing certain movements at football because I’ve not exactly played football often so that probably helped cause the reason why it’s hurting.” With storms forecast for Saturday, the Evian Masters Sports Committee took the decision to bring forward the tee times for the third round, which will start at 7.30am from tees one and 10. The leaders will tee off in reverse order from the first and the lower ranked players from the 10th.