Survival was the byword for those involved in the second round of the AIG Women's British Open at Royal Troon, as strong winds yet again whipped across the links, and Stephanie Meadow was the only one of the Irish trio in the field to make it beyond the 36-holes half-way cut.
The 28-year-old from Jordanstown in Co Antrim shot a second successive round of 75 for a midway total of eight-over-par 150, which left her nine strokes adrift of leader Dani Holmqvist of Sweden, who was the only player in the entire field to lie under par heading into the weekend.
For Leona Maguire, back-to-back bogeys on the 14th and 15th holes proved costly as a second round 75 for 152 saw her miss the cut by just one stroke, while amateur Olivia Mehaffey carded a 77 for 154 which also saw her miss out. Maguire will now head stateside for the remainder of the LPGA Tour season, starting with next week's tournament in Arkansas.
Meadow demonstrated tremendous resilience to survive the cut, as she ran up a triple-bogey seven on the second hole and turned in 40. However, she produced a solid performance on the inward run, with just one bogey on the 11th, the notorious Railway hole, but sank a birdie putt on the Par 3 17th to get inside the cut line.
As if to emphasise the difficulty of the playing conditions, first round leader Amy Olson added an 81 to her opening round 67 to plummet down the leaderboard, while it was left to Swede Nordqvist to assume the 36-hole lead with a 70 – four birdies and three bogeys – to add to her opening round 71, which gave her a one stroke lead over American Austin Ernst and Germany's Sophia Popov.
One of the big-name players to miss the cut was Major champion Lexi Thompson, who was also the subject of some rules discussion following an incident in her opening round when she had moved a tuft of grass from behind the ball.
The R&A determined that Thompson was not subject to any penalty because "although the player had moved a growing natural object behind her ball, it had returned to its original position" by the time she played her shot. As such, it was deemed the lie of the ball was not improved.
Leaderboard
British and Irish unless stated, par 71, (a) denotes amateur
141 Daniela Holmqvist (Swe) 71 70
142 Austin Ernst (USA) 72 70, Sophia Popov (Ger) 70 72
143 Jasmine Suwannapura (Tha) 71 72, Emily K Pedersen (Den) 71 72, Lindsey Weaver (USA) 71 72, Minjee Lee (Aus) 74 69, Lydia Ko (Nzl) 72 71
144 Nelly Korda (USA) 72 72, Haru Nomura (Jpn) 74 70
145 Yealimi Noh (USA) 72 73, Nuria Iturrios (Esp) 71 74, Anna Nordqvist (Swe) 71 74, Alena Sharp (Can) 71 74, Lee-Anne Pace (Rsa) 71 74, Megan Khang (USA) 75 70
146 Caroline Inglis (USA) 75 71, Elizabeth Szokol (USA) 72 74, Caroline Masson (Ger) 72 74, Inbee Park (Kor) 77 69
147 Ariya Jutanugarn (Tha) 73 74, Andrea Lee (USA) 74 73, Catriona Matthew 71 76, Mi Hyang Lee (Kor) 76 71, In Gee Chun (Kor) 72 75, Ashleigh Buhai (Rsa) 74 73, Kristen Gillman (USA) 75 72, Cydney Clanton (USA) 74 73, Becky Morgan 74 73, Angela Stanford (USA) 73 74, Hannah Green (Aus) 75 72, Lizette Salas (USA) 73 74
148 Jodi Ewart Shadoff 73 75, Jennifer Song (USA) 74 74, Amy Olson (USA) 67 81, Dana Finkelstein (USA) 77 71, Maria Torres (Pue) 76 72, Johanna Gustavsson (Swe) 73 75, Sandra Gal (Ger) 74 74
149 Marina Alex (USA) 70 79, Georgia Hall 73 76, Azahara Munoz (Esp) 74 75, Angel Yin (USA) 75 74, Amy Yang (Kor) 73 76, Brittany Altomare (USA) 77 72, Ally McDonald (USA) 74 75, Perrine Delacour (Fra) 75 74, Celine Herbin (Fra) 74 75, Anne Van Dam (Ned) 77 72, Katherine Kirk (Aus) 72 77, Alison Lee (USA) 72 77
150 Felicity Johnson 76 74, Emma Talley (USA) 77 73, Stephanie Meadow 75 75, Julieta Granada (Pry) 77 73, Michele Thomson 73 77, Jenny Shin (USA) 77 73, Momoko Ueda (Jpn) 75 75, Moriya Jutanugarn (Tha) 77 73, Pernilla Lindberg (Swe) 75 75, Danielle Kang (USA) 76 74, Bronte Law 80 70, Jing Yan (Chn) 77 73
151 Stephanie Kyriacou (Aus) 73 78, Dottie Ardina (Phl) 78 73, Morgan Pressel (USA) 77 74, Melissa Reid 78 73, Sarah-Jane Smith (Aus) 78 73, Nasa Hataoka (Jpn) 74 77, Camilla Lennarth (Swe) 75 76, Carlota Ciganda (Esp) 77 74, Gaby Lopez (Mex) 71 80, Cheyenne Knight (USA) 76 75, Laura Fuenfstueck (Ger) 73 78
Missed cut
152 In-Kyung Kim (Kor) 78 74, Kendall Dye (USA) 77 75, Brooke M. Henderson (Can) 77 75, Haley Moore (USA) 76 76, Monique Smit (Rsa) 75 77, Hannah Burke 76 76, Pei-yun Chien (Chn) 78 74, Leona Maguire 77 75, Linnea Strom (Swe) 75 77, Manon De Roey (Bel) 81 71, Charlotte Thompson 79 73, Celine Boutier (Fra) 81 71, Nicole Broch Larsen (Den) 74 78, (a) Julia Engstrom (Swe) 78 74, (a) Gabriela Ruffels (Aus) 79 73, Kelly Tan (Mal) 74 78
153 Esther Henseleit (Ger) 78 75, Meghan MacLaren 78 75, Lexi Thompson (USA) 78 75, Eleanor Givens 74 79, Katja Pogacar (Slo) 75 78, Lindy Duncan (USA) 76 77, Gerina Piller (USA) 81 72, YuJeong Son (Kor) 78 75, Christine Wolf (USA) 77 76, Olivia Cowan (Ger) 76 77, Sarah Kemp (Aus) 75 78, Stacy Lewis (USA) 76 77, Carly Booth 80 73, Klara Spilkova (Cze) 75 78
154 Madelene Sagstrom (Swe) 78 76, Jennifer Coleman (USA) 78 76, (a) Olivia Mehaffey 77 77, Brittany Lang (USA) 77 77, Xi Yu Lin (Chn) 75 79, Kylie Henry 78 76, Caroline Hedwall (Swe) 79 75, Karolin Lampert (Ger) 75 79, Tvesa Malik (Ind) 79 75, Hinako Shibuno (Jpn) 76 78, Laura Davies 80 74
155 Su Oh (Aus) 76 79, Nanna Koerstz Madsen (Den) 81 74, Yui Kawamoto (Jpn) 75 80, Luna Sobron Galmes (Esp) 80 75, Cristie Kerr (USA) 78 77, Minami Katsu (Jpn) 76 79, Charley Hull 76 79
156 Marianne Skarpnord (Nor) 74 82, Mone Inami (Jpn) 77 79, Alice Hewson 79 77, Gemma Dryburgh 74 82, Aditi Ashok (Ind) 78 78
157 Jennifer Chang (USA) 80 77, Sanna Nuutinen (Fin) 74 83,Diksha Dagar (Ind) 79 78, Yu Liu (Chn) 77 80, Maria Fassi (Mex) 75 82, Lina Boqvist (Swe) 75 82, Annie Park (USA) 81 76
158 Charlotte Thomas 78 80, Ursula Wikstrom (Fin) 81 77, Whitney Hillier (Aus) 78 80
159 Patty Tavatanakit (Tha) 76 83, Jennifer Kupcho (USA) 78 81
160 Tiffany Joh (USA) 76 84, Christina Kim (USA) 80 80, Emma Nilsson (Swe) 76 84
164 Louise Ridderstrom (Swe) 81 83
166 Tonje Daffinrud (Nor) 85 81
