Golf: Duke's hazards slow up Davies: Taiwan's finest rises early to take command of British Open

LAURA DAVIES may have taken delivery of a luxury BMW M3 car on Thursday but yesterday she was caught in the slow lane when she handed in a second round of 76 in the Weetabix British Women's Open over the Duke's course here, writes John Bolton from Woburn.

'I have never been superstitious about Friday the 13th but I am now,' said Davies, who dropped three shots in a row from the 15th before snatching a late birdie at the long 18th hole. It left Davies with a half-way aggregate of 145 and five strokes adrift of the Australian, Karen Lunn, who added a 69 to her 71 to lead at six under par on 140, one stroke ahead of Taiwan's Li Wen-Lin.

Lunn has honed her short game while playing eight tournaments in America this year. 'When you watch players like Patty Sheehan spending four hours on the practice ground the message gets home,' said Lunn, who gathered five birdies and an eagle in her round. A stunning 215-yard two- iron second shot, which hit the flagstick at the long fourth, left Lunn with a tap-in putt of only two feet for her three but she took three putts at the 18th where a birdie would have given her the course record.

Li, a former caddie, only took up the game seven years ago and made an immediate impact when she joined the European Tour in 1989 when she entered 12 tournaments but only turned up to play in six. Joe Flanagan, then executive director of the Tour, fined her but discovered that the only two words of English she knew were 'Hello Joe'. Flanagan penned a letter of appeal for her and the fine was rescinded. Yesterday Li was not stuck for words in describing a round which contained six birdies.

WEETABIX WOMEN'S BRITISH OPEN (Woburn) Leading second-round scores (GB or Irl unless stated; *denotes amateur): 140 K Lunn (Aus) 71 69. 141 Li Wen-Lin (Tai) 70 71. 143 C Dibnah (Aus) 73 70; S Strudwick 72 71. 144 K Marshall 73 71. 145 P Sheehan (US) 75 70; B Burton (US) 75 70; F Dassu (It) 70 75; L Davies 69 76. 146 C Hall 75 71; S Gronberg (Swe) 76 70; *A-C Jonasson (Swe) 72 74; L Neumann (Swe) 74 72; S Bennett 73 73. 147 D Hanna 74 73; A Gottmo (Swe) 77 70; C Nilsmark (Swe) 76 71; T Johnson 72 75; S van Wyk (SA) 72 75; K Orum (Den) 75 72; *S Dallongeville (Fra) 72 75; A Nicholas 74 73. 148 R Hast 77 71; *N Buxton 74 74; H Alfredsson (Swe) 77 71. 149 *L Brooky (NZ) 76 73; *P Meunier (Fra) 73 76; T Loveys 73 76; G Stewart 74 75; L Fairclough 73 76. 150 M-L de Lorenzi (Fra) 73 77; V Palli Fra) 74 76; C Figg-Currier (US) 75 75; K Cathrein (US) 74 76; H Wadsworth 75 75; K Leadbetter (US) 74 76. 151 K Espinasse (Fra) 77 74; *J Morley 77 74; *C Lambert 79 72; S Gautrey (Aus) 76 75; D Reid 76 75; C Hjalmarsson (Swe) 77 74; T Abitbol (Sp) 77 74; J Geddes (US) 76 75; C Duffy 75 76; L Cowan (Aus) 74 77; J Soulsby 76 75; C Soules (Fra) 71 80; M Estuesta (Phi) 75 76.

IRISH players from north and south of the border dominated the Austrian Open in Vienna yesterday, with Ronan Rafferty and Eoghan O'Connell joint leaders on 10 under par after the second round. Rafferty shot 69 to go with his first-round 65 while O'Connell had a second successive 67. They lead Germany's Sven Struver, who shot a course-record 63.