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Georgia Hall sharing the lead at the AIG Women’s Open at halfway, bidding for second win

Georgia Hall

The Englishwoman is bidding to triumph at Carnoustie three years after winning at Royal Lytham.

Links golf is a strange beast. Some golfers get it, others are mystified by everything about it.
Count Georgia Hall among the former.
The 25-year-old finished third in the AIG Women's Open back in 2018 at Kingsbarns, won it at Royal Lytham & St Anne's a year later, and heads into the final 36 holes at Carnoustie sharing the lead with Mina Harigae.
Her quality results in the championship when it is held by the seaside are no fluke - she genuinely loves the linksland challenge and, as such, Carnoustie is right up her street.
With one exception: it hasn't been, and it isn't forecast to be, very blowy this week.

"I think it's about time it got windy," she laughed after adding a 69 to her first round 68.

"Windy is proper links golf and that's what people want to see. I think it makes golf much more interesting when there's a lot of wind. So I'm quite excited to play in it. Obviously it makes it a lot harder but I think it would be a true test."
Would gusty conditions provide her with an advantage? She thinks so.
"I'd like to think so, and especially a lot of the Americans, they don't play in the wind quite as much but at the same time they are extremely good golfers. I've just got to control by ball flight and see how windy it gets."
Her victory three years ago was aided by a conversation with Tom Lehman, the Open champion on the Lancashire links. He warned her about the fairway bunkers. Keep out of them, he said, and you'll go a long way towards triumph.
She was furious that she found one of them all week, but that paltry total was key to her success.
This year she has felt comfortable, and mature enough, to construct a strategy of her own.
"The practise rounds here, I was coming up with a plan to plot your way around the golf course like a lot of links golf courses. I think know how to play that style of the game. It's just hitting the right shots.
"I'm a bit more experienced. I handle the pressure better too."
The good news for Hall is that front runners have an exceptional record in this championship.
The last 19 winner have been in the top 10 at the halfway stage and 13 of them were tied second or better.
Hall's biggest threats are likely to be Sei Young Kim and Lizette Salas, currently tied third and one shot back.
Kim is a prolific winner on the LPGA and Salas one of the most unfortunate major championship performers, as Justin Ray has pointed out -

Among those two shots back and still in the top 10 are Lexi Thompson (who is thriving with a local caddie), Leona Maguire (who played the course in the 2012 Amateur Championship), Moriya Jutanugarn (attempting to add to her sister's win in this event in 2016) and Yuka Saso (the current US Open champion).

Hall is the 6/1 favourite, with Nelly Korda (three back) 13/2, Kim 7/1 and Harigae 14/1. Back them at PlanetSportBet.

READ MORE: Halfway Hut at The Northern Trust: Can anyone catch Jon Rahm?

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