(Arras, France June 21 2002) Four players are locked at the top of the leaderboard on six under par after the second round of the €275,000 Open de France Dames at Golf d’Arras in northern France.

Local favourite Karine Icher from France posted a four under par 68 in the morning matches to add to Thursday’s 70 and led for most of the afternoon until New Zealander Lynnette Brooky joined her at the top after her second consecutive 69.

Spain’s Raquel Carriedo, playing in the next match, made sure she didn’t double bogey the final hole again in her 68, and in the final match of the afternoon, Claire Duffy from England posted the lowest round of the week, a seven under par 65 to race to tie the lead in only her second event of the season.

Brooky – nice beret!

Brooky got under way with three consecutive birdies from the third and added another at the 13th in a flawless display. But at the 18th, the 34-year-old from Wellington finished with a bogey at the 552-yard par five after taking an educated risk at the final hole.

“I just though stuff it, it’s Friday and I went to hit it over the hazard, it didn’t work, but it was an awesome bogey,” giggled Brooky, who finished tied third behind Icher in Spain three weeks ago.

“But red numbers make me happy – 69, 69, let’s see what happens tomorrow. The greens are true and that’s a good thing and I’ve been putting consistently lately, so who knows.”

Carriedo, who racked up a double bogey at the final hole in the first round, negotiated her way around this short and tight layout with birdies at the fourth, fifth, seventh and eighth to turn in 33, despite opening with a bogey. Birdies at the tenth, 13th and 17th kept her in touch with the lead after bogies at the 11th and 14th.

“I am very happy,” said last year’s European number one.

“I am pretty confident with my long game and yesterday, I thought I deserved to be one shot better after playing so well.

“The greens are not very good, but I have been hitting the ball so close to the pin all day and holing the putts. You can make many birdies out there, but bogies are easy to make, especially with the wind getting up a bit. But Pablo (her caddie) and I had a lot of communicating between us today.”

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