EMILEE KLEIN, "feeding off the momentum" as she put it, had a second round 66 in the Women's British Open at Woburn yesterday. It took her two round total to 134, 12 under par and meant that as she had played the last two rounds in the American tournament she won last week in 68, 65, she was 23 under par for her last 72 holes.
Yesterday's round gave her a five shot lead over Alison Nicholas, Karrie Webb and Annika Sorenstam and means that her recent striking rate for birdies is around one every three holes. Klein, like Webb and Annika Sorenstam, belongs to the minimalist school of golf, both in physique five feet four inches and eight stones nine pounds - and, in her swing, which, like the mills of God, grinds enviably slow and exceedingly sure.
She takes an age to get to the top of her back swing - John Daly would have hit and been off the front end of the tee by the time she gets there - but finding fairways is no problem at all. So far this season she has hit 738 out of the 935 she has aimed at, the fifth most successful woman in all America.
Klein is another who, like Jenny Lidback who had a 68 on Thursday, has abandoned the long irons and instead carries a seven and nine wood. "They are just so much easier to hit," she says. The seven wood goes around 180 yards, the nine around 165 and she prefers them even for those shots out of the rough which traditionally have been said to need the fiercer cutting edge of an iron.
"I don't hit the ball high enough with a three or four iron," she says "so I hit the woods, which drop down easier on the greens. If I hit the irons I'd have to run the ball on to the greens, is chancier.
Meanwhile, Barbara Hackett, the Irish amateur champion from Castletroy exceeded all her expectations after a second round of 7 left her with a three under par total of 143. "My aim at the start of the week was to make the cut," said Hackett, who works in the accounts department of a Limerick care centre. Not only has she achieved this comfortably but she is the only amateur to reach the third round and becomes the first Irish golfer to win the Smyth salver for the leading amateur.
Aideen Rogers from the Island Club added a 75 to her opening 74 to miss the cut by one stroke, with Portstewart's Maureen Madill on 160 following a 79.
