Lunn leads as Leary falls back to earth

THE CRUEL vagaries of golf were demonstrated in the Guardian Irish Women's Open at Luttrellstown Castle yesterday where Jane Leary plummeted back to earth like a piece of the Mir space station. Instead another Australian, Karen Lunn, the only player in the field to be under par at the midway stage, assumed leadership in the £110,000 tournament.

"I was terrible, just shocking" lamented Leary, after firing a second round 79, no fewer than 13 strokes worse than her first day's effort. Her compatriot Lunn was quite oblivious to such tales of misfortune as, by that time, she'd headed off to Dublin's city centre shops to contribute to the country's tiger economy.

Lunn, winner of over £250,000 as a professional, has already won the Tournament Players' Championship, at Tytherington, and finished third twice, in the Danish and Swiss Opens, this season. And the 31-year-old produced a second round 70 for one-under-par 143, which gave her a one-stroke advantage over a quartet of players: Federica Dassu, Lora Fairclough, Patricia Meunier Lebouc and Karen Pearce.

The wind, again, wreaked havoc with many scores, and even the Tour's decision to allow preferred lies on the fairways didn't appreciably improve the figures. As such, the half-way cut fell at nine-over-par 153, and just two Irish players, professional Maureen Madill (149) and amateur Eileen Rose Power (151), survived for the weekend.

Both efforts were noteworthy in their own right. Power, who faces a busy month ahead with the European championships and the Vagliano Trophy, produced a round of 73 which many a professional would have paid for, while Madill showed commendable resilience to salvage a 75 after reaching the turn in five-over-par 41.

Lunn, who has beaten the back injury which threatened her career a couple of years ago, is revelling since making the decision to stick with the European Tour rather than the US circuit. And, despite a par-bogey finish, which she described as "effectively two dropped shots", Lunn was optimistic enough about her prospects. "My short game isn't as good as I would like, but this course is playing tough and it's going to be an interesting final two rounds," she said.

A wedge shot approach which clipped the cup at the first set the scene for Lunn's round, and another tap-in birdie at the third and a 12-footer at the seventh put her to two-under for the tournament.

But she suffered the first of her two bogeys by three-putting the eighth; sank a five-footer for birdie at the ninth and reeled off eight consecutive pars before bogeying the last.

As Leary fell down the field to eventually finish on one-over-par 145 - albeit just two shots adrift, and with the firm commitment that "I'm still in contention" - Lunn's main challenger later in the day came from Natascja Fink of Austria. She got to two-under-par, and the lead, with four holes to go; but then finished bogey-par-bogey-bogey to join Leary on 145.