The Harman effect evaporated in just 18 holes. There were parallels between the winner of the Open and the leader of the AIG Women’s Open, Ally Ewing (-7), at the halfway point of both Majors, but if the Georgia player had everything under control at Royal Liverpool to be crowned champion, the golfer from Mississippi lost her advantage and was ousted from power by the rebellion of the monosyllable: Lilia Vu (-9), Charley Hull (-9), Angel Yin (-8) and H. J. Kim (-8) overtook Ewing like rockets, who had a disastrous round from the start, perhaps pressured by the advantageous situation, and scored three more on the moving day.
Ally now has a very uphill battle, although by no means impossible, to grab her first trophy in a Major. She started with a five-stroke cushion over the seconds and halfway through the round her lead had been wiped out due to three bogeys and no joy. Failure at 1, 5 and 6 to suddenly place herself with -7. Then she took a deep breath and started to make birdies (10, 11 and 16), although she combined them with more mistakes (13, 14 and 17) to be overtaken by four high-level rivals.
Vu, who also started dubiously with a bogey at 3, caught up with Ewing with -8 at 11 thanks to her fifth birdie. The reigning champion of the Chevron, sixth in the world, is a tough nut to crack because the progression this season of this player with Vietnamese roots (her family emigrated to the United States thanks to the tenacity of her grandfather) is being dazzling. She slowed her positive trend at 14, but far from being daunted, she made birdies at 16 and 18 to place herself as the sole leader with -9.
Behind her, local Charley Hull was biting, cheered on by the fans and eager to open her Grand Slam record after her silvers at the Chevron 2016 and US Open 2023 and her bronze at the Evian 2022. The Kettering Englishwoman came up in the final sprint of the round with three birdies in the last four flags to the delight of the local parish.
Hull and Vu will go out tomorrow with a slim lead over Angel Yin (-8) and H. J. Kim (-8). The American, best result of the day with five less alongside Vu and Amy Yang (-4), left Walton Heath with a bittersweet taste because she was a finger away from adding birdies at 17 and 18 that would have taken her to the sole leadership with double digits. It couldn’t be, although she celebrated the half dozen hits on her round, only marred by a mistake. The South Korean, seventh in the world after Vu, climbed like a sherpa in the Himalaya mountains in the final stretch of the day, with four birdies between 13 and 17 to create a great opportunity to win the British tomorrow.
Behind them, fifth and wilted, appears Ewing, who if she plays like Thursday and Friday could well make up the difference with the first four. Linn Grant (-6) punched the air several times, especially in difficult situations to save pars, and no wonder because she is on the radar to cause a sensation. A great round of five or six less tomorrow would serve to harass the favourites. The Swede made a great 68 and let’s see what happens in the final 18 flags. Nelly Korda (-3), World Number One, was -6 total, but several late bogeys placed her, although within the top ten, far from the fight.
Julia López (+5), the only survivor of the Armada, surely left upset with the second half of her round. The amateur from Benahavís slipped again at 1… and also at 2 (hopefully in the fourth round she will start with par or with a birdie). Even so, she soon fixed the small mess with birdies at 3 and 5, but there ended the positive production of the Malaga woman, who made mistakes at 7, 11, 13 and 17 for a painful +4 on the round that delayed her on the leaderboard to 67th place. She is two strokes behind the Englishwoman Charlotte Heath (+3), with whom she will fight tomorrow to be the best amateur of the British. Julia is sure to give her all to achieve it.
