Yamashita leads after stunning 65 at Women’s Open

Second round leaderboard for the AIG Women’s Open 2025

-11 Yamashita (Jpn), -8 Takeda (Jpn)

others were screened.

-2 Harry (Wal), Korda (US), Woad (Eng), -1 Nordqvist (Swe), E G Hall (Eng), + 2 Ko (NZ), + 7 Vu (US)

Miyu Yamashita, a Japanese player, shot a bogey-free 65 to claim a dominant lead at Royal Porthcawl.

Yamashita was one of the people who took advantage of the slightly calmer weather on Friday morning in south Wales. Wind speeds are anticipated to increase in the afternoon.

Before a triple-bogey seven on the par-four 16th derails her progress, England’s Lottie Woad was on course to post a score comparable to hers in her second round.

The 21-year-old eventually shot a two-under-70 to finish the round nine shots back of the leader.

On Saturday, Yamashita, who turns 24 years old, birdied her first two holes and added four more shots to her score.

The final round of the tournament was ended by her seventh birdie of the day, leaving the clubhouse target at 11 under par.

Steph Kyriacou also made the first hole-in-one attempt of the year’s tournament at par three eighth.

At two over after a second straight round of 73, defending champion Lydia Ko may not have done enough to participate in the final two rounds because the cut mark is expected to be either level par or one over.

The pre-tournament favorite, who was born in Farnham, shot a level-par 72 in her opening round, but with three holes to play, she had already climbed into the top five.

Woad completed the next ten holes with six birdies and one bogey after five straight pars.

Then, on the par-four 16th, all of her encouraging momentum was lost:

Woad put together two strong pars to finish after that setback.

After her round, Woad commented, “I believe it to be one of the most challenging holes on the course.”

The fairway is difficult to hit, and the result is a three-wood into a strong wind. Anything that misses the mark will be exaggerated.

I then pushed it, which was a pretty unlucky lie. I couldn’t really do much with that because it wasn’t too thick elsewhere besides where I was.

After a difficult opening day, she continued, “I’d definitely take it two under par] now, but not when I was standing on the 16th tee.