England’s Lottie Woad moved into joint top position at Augusta National Women’s Amateur when she shot 70 in the second round to stand at nine-under-par alongside Kiara Romero.
Woad, a junior at Florida State and the No 1 player in the women’s amateur ranking, won this event last year.
She is now looking to become the first back-to-back winner of the Augusta National Women’s Amateur.
The entire field will get to play a practice round at Augusta National on Friday, before the top 30 and ties who made the cut then play the final round on Saturday.
“I’ve got all the experience from last year of the 48 hours between,” Woad said. “It’s pretty positive to me.”
She added: “I knew I was going off earlier than Megha [Ganne, leader after first round], so I just thought if I could maybe get a few birdies to start I could kind of show that I could catch her, and managed to do that.
“I think I can definitely use last year. I had the lead and then lost it. If that happens again, then I’d know that I’ve come back from there before. So I guess they’re positive memories.
“I think the pins were definitely a lot harder, so I had to adjust a little bit on that. Some holes you kind of had to play away from a little bit whereas yesterday I feel like I could really attack every pin. So I had to be a bit more patient today.”
Romero tumbled down the leaderboard with a double bogey on the fourth hole and a bogey on the fifth, but landed three consecutive birdies to score 68.
She said: “I feel like I have a lot more control over the mental side of it. I had a double and a bogey back-to-back on four and five, so I didn’t let that get to me at all. I actually ended up with birdieing the last three holes. So I feel like that kind of shows the way my game has matured from last year.
“[I’m] just going to try to do my best to take notes of the course and see where are the good spots and create a good game plan for Saturday.”
Going into the final round, five players are within two shots of the lead.
Spain’s Carla Bernat Escuder is one shot behind Woad and Romero, along with Andre Revuelta and Megha Ganne. Ganne shot 73, 10 worse than her opening round, but remains in contention.
Who will win the Augusta National Women’s Amateur? Watch the final round live on Saturday from 5pm on Sky Sports Golf. Get Sky Sports or stream with no contract on NOW.
When is The Masters live on Sky Sports?
Sky Sports Golf will be showing record hours of live coverage from the 2025 contest, where Scottie Scheffler returns as defending champion, including more action over the final two rounds than previous years.
Wall-to-wall coverage from the tournament begins at 2pm on Thursday, with Featured Group action and regular updates from around the course available to enjoy on Sky Sports Golf until the global broadcast window begins at 8pm.
The same timings will apply on Friday, while a new addition to this year’s coverage sees a Masters build-up show live from 3pm over the weekend ahead of full coverage starting at 5pm, covering all the action until after the close of play.
On Sky +, Sky Q and Sky Glass there will be lots of extra action via the red button on the Sky Sports Golf channel, providing plenty of bonus feeds and allowing you to follow players’ progress through various parts of Augusta’s famous layout.
