Switzerland’s Morgane Metraux charged out of the gates on Thursday at Le Golf National, recording an Olympic nine-hole record of eight-under 28 and hung on through a bumpy two-under back nine to seize the lead after the second round of the Olympic women’s golf competition.
After starting her day with a birdie at the first, the 27-year-old Metraux went on a tear, starting with an eagle at the par five third and then reeling off three straight birdies on Nos. 4-6. She capped her front nine with her second eagle of the day, dropping a putt from 15 feet, 7 inches to turn in 28 and record the best nine-hole score in both the men’s and women’s Olympic golf competitions to date.
“The difference between yesterday and today at the beginning is just the putts that fell,” said Metraux, whose previous best nine-hole score had been a front-nine 30 that came during the first round of the 2023 Walmart NW Arkansas Championship presented by P&G. “It just brought me confidence going forward and just tried to stay as present as I could and one shot at a time. It went pretty well.”
The momentum slowed on the back with a bogey-birdie-bogey stretch over holes 13 through 15, and she found the water with her second shot while trying to go for the green in two on the par-5 18th to finish with a bogey.
Metraux, winner of two Ladies European Tour titles, including the 2024 the Jabra Ladies Open in Evian-les-Bains, France, holds a narrow one-stroke lead over China’s Ruoning Yin, who carded the round of the day with a bogey-free, seven-under 65. Two-time Olympic medallist and defending bronze medallist Lydia Ko (72-67) of New Zealand vaulted up the leaderboard and stands third.
Also posting a notable second round was Slovenia’s Pia Babnik, who carded a six-under 66 that featured a run of five straight birdies on Nos. 12-16. Babnik, who opened with a two-over 74 in the first round, improved 26 spots on the leaderboard and currently sits in a tie for fourth.
First-round leader and Frenchwoman Celine Boutier, who opened with a seven-under 75 on Wednesday, struggled to a four-over 76 in the second round. She suffered a particularly rough stretch on the back nine, making double bogey at 13, bogey at 14 and double at 15. Defending gold medallist Nelly Korda had an eventful final stretch en route to her second-round 70, making birdie at 15, quadruple bogey at 16, bogey at 17 and birdie at 18.
