Ana Peláez (-1) has delivered the fourth best result of the second day of the Magical Kenya Ladies Open and has made a notable leap in the ranking. She has handed in a card of 71 strokes, two under par on the day, and has moved into eleventh place, on the verge of the top 10 and just four strokes from the lead held by South African Cara Gorlei (-5).
The golfer from Malaga is making her presence felt and putting pressure on those above her. However, her presence is always unsettling. She is still one of the favourites to win, as in Kenya there is only one golfer (Diksha Dagar) with a better ranking in the order of merit of the circuit last year. Let’s remember that Ana finished in fifth place.
In any case, today’s 71-stroke card from the golfer from Río Real is very meritorious. She has signed three birdies and a solitary bogey and has displayed a golf full of control and consistency. She has hit 15 greens. Very good records on a day where the wind has once again blown generously on the Baobab course at Vipingo Ridge, in Kenya.
With this second round, as is obvious, Peláez aspires to everything in this first tournament of the Ladies European Tour of the season that is played over four rounds. Also not at all ruled out for the great battle are María Hernández (PAR), who has chained her second card at par, very solid, Luna Sobrón (+2), who today experienced a roller coaster of 73 strokes, Marta Martín (+2), 75 strokes on a complicated day on the greens, Paz Marfá (+3) or Marta Sanz (+3). In the case of Paz and Marta it is true that they are seven strokes, but the ranking in Kenya can move a lot due to the influence of the wind.
In the same way, Teresa Toscano (+4), Fátima Fernández Cano (+6) and Nuria Iturrioz (+6) have managed to make the cut, although they are somewhat off the pace. It is worth highlighting the great round under par of the golfer from Huelva, Toscano (72 strokes, it’s par 73) to get into the cut. Meanwhile, Fátima and Nuria had to suffer until the end to know if they were playing the weekend after finishing with double bogey and bogey on their final hole. 67 players have made the cut with a result of +6 or better. The only Spanish player who has been left out of the cut has been Teresa Díez Moliner.
As for the lead, Gorlei, a 27-year-old South African with little professional international experience, has managed to overcome a four-putt on hole 14 (double bogey) to stay at the top. She has a one-stroke lead over Nataliya Guseva (-4), the 20-year-old Russian golfer who won the LET school and who cannot display her flag by mandate of the International Olympic Committee, due to the punishment imposed on her country. Tied in third place with -3 are Japanese Ayako Uehara, the oldest rookie in LET history (40 years), who has decided to try her luck in Europe after losing her LPGA Tour card in 2023, Singaporean Shannon Tan (-3), Swiss Chiara Tamburlini (-3) and Italian Alessandra Fanali (-3).
