Leona Maguire and Stephanie Meadow are praying their putters heat up at the weekend after they were forced to work hard just to make the cut in the AIG Women's Open at Walton Heath.

Maguire struggled mightily on the slow and bobbly greens, but after slipping to the cut line with five holes to go, she birdied the 14th with a hybrid to two feet before rolling in a 20-footer for a two at the 17th.

It all added up to a second successive 72 that left her ten shots behind American Ally Ewing on level par, with Meadow a shot further back after a 74.

The Co Cavan star is in the middle of the chasing pack after Ewing fired a six-under 66 to follow in the footsteps of Open champion Brian Harman and take a five-stroke lead into the weekend on 10-under par.

The excellent news is Maguire is three strokes behind England's Charley Hull (68), Japan's Minami Katsu (69) and American Andrea Lee (68), who share second place on five-under and after finishing tied fourth thanks to a closing 66 at Muirfield last year, she knows she's not out of it.

"I felt like I played great; I just didn't putt very well," said the world number 13, who missed two putts inside five feet and had her momentum checked by a couple of back nine three putts in a 34-putt round. "I didn't have good speed again today.

"I felt like I played really, really well today, hit a lot of really nice shots and gave myself a lot of chances, but those few three putts are really a killer for momentum.

"Level par is nothing to be sniffed at through two rounds in a major. I felt like I played well enough to shoot four or five under today, but the three putts were all that held me back, really. So if I play as well as I did today and hole more putts tomorrow, there's no reason why I can't move up the leaderboard.

Early starter Meadow is a shot further back on one-over after she mixed two birdies with two bogeys in her first five holes before monsters at the 14th and 18th saw her card a 74 that left her looking anxiously at the cut line.

"I thought I played pretty good today," Meadow told RTE Radio after a 33-putt round. "I just didn't make the birdie on 16, which was an easy par-five today. So that obviously hurt me and I didn't really roll in any putts.

"Obviously, the scores are pretty tight and while Ally's way out ahead at the minute, everybody's pretty bunched, so I feel if you play a decent round on the weekend, you're going to jump big time."

Amateur Anna Foster improved on her opening round by 12 strokes and carded a 75 to finish on 18-over on her major debut.

But there was better news for the Irish at the Farmfoods Scottish Challenge supported by the R&A in Scotland, where Jonathan Caldwell added a 68 to his opening 66 to go into the weekend alone in second place, just a shot behind American leader Jordan Gumburg on eight under.

Dermot McElroy (69) and Conor Purcell (70) were tied 49th on two-under.