Yamashita leads after stunning 65 at Women's Open

AIG Women's Open 2025 - second round leaderboard

-11 Yamashita (Jpn); -8 Takeda (Jpn); -4 Anannarukarn (Tha), Duncan (US), Fuenfstueck (Ger), Tamburlini (Swi)

Selected others

-2 Harry (Wal), Korda (US), Woad (Eng); -1 Nordqvist (Swe), Rhodes (Eng); E G Hall (Eng), Hull (Eng); +1 Maguire (Irl); +2 G Kim (Aus) M Lee (Aus), Ko (NZ)

Full leaderboard

Miyu Yamashita shot a bogey-free 65 in her second round to lead the Women's Open by three shots at Royal Porthcawl.

Yamashita, who turns 24 years old on Saturday, was among those to take advantage of the calmer conditions in south Wales on Friday morning.

She set the clubhouse target at 11 under par, while playing partner Rio Takeda followed Thursday's round of 67 with a three-under 69 on Friday to lie second.

The Japanese duo will play together again in Saturday's final group, with a four-shot gap between Takeda and a quartet of players at four under.

England's Lottie Woad looked on course to post a similar score to Yamashita in her second round before a triple-bogey seven on the par-four 16th halted her progress.

The 21-year-old eventually finished with a two-under 70, leaving her nine shots behind the leader.

Miyu Yamashita missed the cut at last year's Women's Open, having finished in the top 25 in her two previous appearances

Woad and Wales' Darcey Harry are the leading British players on two under par, alongside American world number one Nelly Korda, who shot a level-par 72 in round two.

England's Charley Hull, one of the later starters, battled well for a one-under-par round of 71 as low scoring became more difficult in the blustery afternoon conditions.

With many struggling, the cut mark slipped back to two over par.

That meant defending champion Lydia Ko, who had looked in danger on that score when she walked off the course just before 13:30 BST, made it through to the weekend.

Elsewhere, Australia's Steph Kyriacou hit the first hole-in-one of this year's tournament at the par-three eighth.

Woad's charge halted by nightmare 16th

Farnham-born Woad, the pre-tournament favourite, shot a level-par 72 in her opening round but had charged into the top five with three holes of her second round to play.

After five straight pars to start, Woad made six birdies and one bogey across the next 10 holes.

Then, all of her positive momentum was halted on the par-four 16th:

• Shot one - drives on to the fairway

• Shot two - sends approach right of green into thick rough

• Shot three - attempts to pitch out but ball remains in similar spot

• Shot four - takes penalty drop

• Shot five - pitches on to green

• Shot six - 30-foot putt comes to rest close to hole

• Shot seven - finds hole

After that setback, which was the only major blemish in an otherwise exceptional round, Woad made two solid pars to finish.

"I think it's probably the toughest hole on the course," she said afterwards.

"The tee shot is hard to hit the fairway and then you've got a three-wood into a very strong wind. Anything that's missing the target is going to be exaggerated.

"So I pushed it and got a pretty unlucky lie. It wasn't too thick around there apart from where I was, so I couldn't really do much with that."

Asked about her second round as a whole after a tough opening day, she added: "I'd certainly take it [two under par] now, but not when I was standing on the 16th tee.

"I've just got to try to play well over the weekend. The leaderboard is pretty packed so I can move up a bit."

World number two Jeeno Thitikul suffered a similar fate to Woad on the par-three 15th, failing to escape from a greenside bunker at the first attempt and eventually carding a triple-bogey six.

That dropped the Thai player back from four under to one under.