(Porthcawl, August 23 2002) At the beginning of the week, Iben Tinning knew she had to perform strongly to realise her dream of becoming the first Dane to represent Europe in The Solheim Cup, and after two rounds of the £400,000 Wales WPGA Championship of Europe at Royal Porthcawl GC, she leads by a shot.

The 28-year-old from Copenhagen is currently lying in the seventh and final automatic spot for The Solheim Cup and with her place under siege from many other challengers playing this week Tinning elevated her game under the pressure.

Head – mentally stronger

“I’m quite pleased with that,” said Head, who is long overdue a win on Tour having secured two runners up spots in her European career.

“Playing in America has made me concentrate more on my game, I am stronger mentally because when you play with the best in the world every week, you have to be.

“We had a great group today, Lis (Esterl) shot five under, Lynnette (Brooky) shot three under, so we were 13 under combined – a great day.

England’s Laura Davies, currently in eighth place in the Solheim Cup rankings is still in the frame to move into the top automatic positions after her second round 72 for a level par total. But she will need to make move on Pettersen and Tinning to avoid the running the gauntlet of wild card selection.

And Sweden’s Maria Hjorth, always capable of low numbers, will also need to improve over the weekend to improve on her eleventh position in the standings.

The cut fell at six over par with 64 players making into the weekend.