Leona Maguire leads by two in England as she chases first Ladies ...

Leona Maguire of Ireland. Photograph: Ezra Shaw/Getty

Leona Maguire remained on track for a first win on the Ladies European Tour after carding a second round 72 to add to her opening 66 for 138 to take a two-stroke lead over Solheim Cup team-mate Georgia Hall in the Aramco Series by PIF at The Centurion Club outside London.

The 29-year-old Cavan player – gearing up for next week’s Evian Championship, the fourth of five Majors, and the Olympics in Paris – had managed to avoid a bogey in her opening round but dropped a shot on the 10th, her opening hole, and after a birdie on the 13th gave it straight back with a bogey on the 14th to turn in 37.

Hall, one of six European members of last year’s winning Solheim Cup playing, actually moved into the lead with a stunning haul of five birdies on her front nine only for the Englishwoman to drop two shots in her last three holes, while Maguire – a two-time winner on the LPGA Tour but yet to taste success on the LET – covered her homeward run with two birdies – on the third and sixth – to reclaim the lead heading into Friday’s final round of the 54-hole tournament.

Lauren Walsh, the LET rookie from Castlewarden Golf Club in Kildare, added a second round 75 – where she recovered from a difficult front nine that included a double-bogey and two bogeys only to claim two birdies in a bogey-free run home on her back nine – to her opening 73 for two-over-par 148 that ensured she progressed into the final round.

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Philip Reid is Golf Correspondent of The Irish Times