Swede Hedwall leads by one shot after Round 2 of the Dubai Moonlight Classic

Dubai - In sole second place is England’s Meghan MacLaren who shot a 67 to follow her first round 69

First round leader Caroline Hedwall of Sweden shot a 2 under par 70 second round, to maintain a one stroke lead on 9-under par, in the Ladies’ European Tour’s OMEGA Dubai Moonlight Classic on Thursday on the Faldo Course at Emirates Golf Club, Dubai.

Playing in the morning daylight shotgun wave, from hole 15B, Hedwall, the four-time Solheim Cup player, had birdies on holes 16 and 13 to remain bogey free in her first two rounds, the only player in the field to boast this statistic.

In sole second place is England’s Meghan MacLaren who shot a 67 to follow her first round 69 to move her up 3 spots.

Minjee Lee (Aus), 9th in the current Women’s World Rankings shot the tied best of the day 65 along with Finland’s Sanna Nuutinen. Lee moves into contention in tied 3rd.

The players in the evening shotgun wave under lights seemed to struggle more than the morning starters perhaps due to the slightly slower greens.

Dubai based resident Alison Muirhead (Sco) followed her opening round of 69 with a 74 to finish tied 16th.

Dame Laura Davies of England shot a 2 over par 74 to follow a first round 72, despite just one solitary birdie, 1 over par on the four par 5’s contrasting her first round which contained 6 birdies.

Defending champion Nuria Iturrioz of Spain managed a second sub-par round, this time a 1 under 71 to finish tied 8th in a creditable defence of her title.

Emily Kristine Pedersen of Denmark, currently leading the Race to Costa Del Sol, had a 9 shot improvement in her second round 73 for a two round score of 155.

Friday sees play for the 56 players only in the final round with the prizefund for this year’s tournament at €260,000.

The final day’s play will be in threeballs in a 5 pm (local time) shotgun start.

The leading group sees Hedwall play with Hedwall and Lee teeing off Hole 1B.

No spectators are permitted to attend this COVID-19 restricted event.

Leading 36 hole Scores (Par 72):

135: C. Hedwall (Swe) 65, 70.

136: M. MacLaren (Eng) 69, 67.

137: M. Lee (Aus) 72, 65. L. Fuenfstueck (Ger) 67,70.

138: C. Boutier (Fra) 67,71. L. Ko (NZ) 68,70.

139: K. Metraux (Sui) 69, 70.

Other Notables

143: A. Muirhead (Scot) 69, 74.

144: C. Hull (Eng) 75, 69.

145: G. Hall (Eng) 72, 73.

146: L. Davies (Eng) 72, 74.

147: M. Haddioui (Mar) 75, 72.

151: A. Boulden (Wal) 77,74.

154: O. Jackson (Eng) 76, 78.

163: C. Noja (A) (Eng) 77, 86.