Leona Maguire needs a round in the mid-sixties to revive her hopes of a home victory after a three-over 75 left her ten shots offthe pace in the KPMG Women’s Irish Open.

The world number 18 made seven birdies in an opening 67 to lie just two shots off the lead at Dromoland Castle. But while the putter was red-hot on the opening day, it didn’t save her yesterday as she mixed two birdies with five bogeys to slip to joint 42nd on two-under.

Big-hitting Swede Moa Folke (27) carded the lowest round of her career in one of the last groups of the day when she rifled a 170-yard seven-iron to 25 feet at the 18th and rolled in the eagle putt for a 10-under 62 and a two-shot lead over Denmark’s Smilla Tarning Soenderby,  Spanish veteran Carmen Alonso and the Czech Republic’s Klara Spilkova on 12-under par.

“I don’t know what happened out there really,” said Folke, who is 77th in the Race to the Costa del Sol and needs a big week to make the top 60 who are fully exempt next season. “I think everything just came together. I made some mistakes but still ended up in good spots and then I made a lot of putts, I’m not going to lie.

“I think it’s a course that sets up for aggressive play and usually it pays off to be aggressive. I had that one bogey when I went for the green and ended up with a bogey but yes, it worked out.”

If it all went right for Folke, it almost all went wrong for Maguire, who outscored just two of the top 100 on the leaderboard yesterday.

While she followed an early bogey at the 13th with birdies at the 15th and 18th to get to six-under, she limped home on four-over 39, dropping four shots in a row from the second where her drive ricocheted off a cart path into trees.

She had to work hard for a bogey there and did well to limit the damage to a bogey at the short third, where she pulled her tee shot into a poor lie in a bunker and overshot the green with her recovery.

Three putts from 50 feet at the 415-yard fourth were a body blow and when she came up short of the green and the fifth and failed to get up and down, then failed to birdie the par-five sixth, she was clearly disappointed and declined the opportunity to comment on her day.

She might have called in the local fans to come out in numbers today after the other seven Irish players in the field, six of them amateurs, all failed to make the weekend.

Amateur Aideen Walsh admitted she was disappointed to miss the one-under par cut by a shot after a 73 on her home course.

The Ennis schoolteacher (24) and Lahinch player was a shot outside the mark with three to play but went for the green at the par-five 16th from the rough and found water.

A bogey there proved costly and while she almost chipped in for eagle at the 18th, her closing birdie was not enough.

“Rookie move there,” the Dromoland Castle member said of the 16th. “I was probably thinking of the cut. It’s just golf—it’s painful at times—but I will learn from it and move on.

“I am disappointed, obviously but as long as the tournament goes well and there’s a crowd at the weekend, that’s the main thing.”

The other five amateurs and Bangor professional Victoria Craig acquitted themselves well but missed the cut and the crowd will need to be there early today to see Maguire, who must be low on energy after a long trip from Portland to play her fourth week in a row.

But there was better news for the Irish at the First Stage Section D of the DP World Tour Qualifying School in Italy where The Island’s Paul McBride and Naas duo Conor O’Rourke and Jonathan Yates progressed to November’s Second Stage.

McBride shot 69 to finish tied seventh on 15-under at Bogogno Golf Resort, five shots behind the leading qualifiers with O’Rourke tied 10th on 14-under after a 68 and Yates two shots further back in 18th, also after a 68.

Twenty-two qualified on 11-under or better with Hermitage’s Rowan Lester 49th on five-under after a 71.

Meanwhile, Dane Rasmus Højgaard (21) added a 65 to his opening 62 to take a six-shot lead over Frenchman Paul Barjon in the Cazoo Open de France at Le Golf National with a record 15 under total.

Jonathan Caldwell finished bogey, double-bogey for a level par 71 that leaves him tied 34th on two-under.

Niall Kearney shot 72 to make level par cut on the mark as Cormac Sharvin’s 77 left him on seven-over.

At the Swiss Challenge, Kinsale’s John Murphy shot a rollercoaster 71 to lead the Irish challenge at halfway at Golf Saint Apollinaire.

At five-under, he’s five shots behind Jeong weon Ko of France with West Waterford’s Gary Hurley 42nd on level par after a two-over 74.

Robin Dawson and Ruaidhri McGee shot 70s but missed the cut by a shot on two-over as Tom McKibbin’s 72 left him three-over with Conor Purcell a shot further back after a 69.

Gavin Moynihan retired while David Carey withdrew due to illness.

KPMG Women's Irish Open, Dromoland Castle, Co Clare (Par 72)

2nd Round

Scores

(Irish unless stated, * denotes amateur)

132 M Folke (Swe) 70 62

134 S Tarning Soenderby (Den) 69 65, C Alonso (Sp) 69 65, K Spilkova (Cze) 66 68

135 A Van Dam (Ned) 67 68, U Wikstrom (Swe) 69 66

136 C Wolf (Aut) 67 69, N Broche Estrop (Den) 70 66

137 F Johnson (Eng) 71 66, L Boqvist (Swe) 65 72, E Arvidsson(Swe) 67 70, S Schober (Aut) 70 67

138 A-L Caudal (Fr) 66 72, J Melichova (Cze) 70 68, C Williams (Wal) 67 71, A Dimmock (Eng) 66 72, O Cowan (Ger) 68 70, L Grant (Swe) 71 67, L Petterson (Swe) 71 67

139 K Lund (Nor) 70 69, S Bringner (Swe) 69 70, J Karlsson (Swe) 71 68, R Davies (Eng) 70 69, L Osala (Fin) 70 69, L Harm (Ger) 70 69, J Gustavsson (Swe) 68 71, C Alexander (RSA) 70 69

140 N Garcia (RSA) 68 72, B Brewerton (Wal) 71, 69 A Swayne (ISV) 65 75, C Gainer (Eng) 68 72, M Sangkapong (Tha) 68 72, L Beveridge (Scot) 69 71, G Cowley (Eng) 67 73, N Dlamini (Swaz) 73 67, M Hernandez (Sp) 73 67

141 A Palaez Trivino (Sp) 70 71, A Sauzon (Fr) 71 70, L Young (Eng) 71 70, L Malchirand (Fr) 73 68, H Burke (Eng) 70 71

142 M Skarpnord (Nor) 68 74, M MacLaren (Eng) 70 72, C Chevalier (Fr) 70 72, Leona Maguire 67 75, M Martin (Sp) 69 73, L Sobron Galmes (Sp) 71 71, HT Kreuzer (Ger) 72 70, P Babnik (Slo) 70 72, M DeRoey (Bel) 74 68, C Hedwall (Swe) 71 71, N Komulainen (Fin) 72 70, T Melecka (Cze) 71 71, T Malik (Ind) 73 69, V Kapur (Ind) 72 70

143 B Morgan (Wal) 71 72, M Simmermacher (Arg) 71 72, V Carta (It) 72 71, M Stavnar (Nor) 74 69, S Witt (Ger) 72 71, M Thomson (Scot) 67 76, T Koivisto (Fin) 70 73, M Prat (Sp) 71 72

(Cut fell on 143)

Other Irish

144 *Aideen Walsh 71 73

150 *Marina Joyce Moreno 74 76

153 * Katie Poots 77 76, *Rebekah Gardner 74 79, * Kate Lanigan 75 78

154 Victoria Craig 80 74

155 *Olivia Costello 79 76.