Swedes looking set for World Cup victory - Women's World Cup of Golf

Sweden's Annika Sorenstam and Liselotte Neumann recovered from a poor start and found their foursomes form to open up a three-stroke lead over Korea on the second day of the Women's World Cup of Golf at the Gary Player Country Club on Saturday.

The Swedes, tied for the lead with Korea at the start of the day, combined for a solid 69 and the lead on 10 under par going into Sunday singles matches. Finland and Columbia finished the day at six under.

But Sorenstam and Neumann had to work hard to come back from a lacklustre opening few holes, including a double bogey at the par-three fourth for a three-shot swing on this hole as Korea's BB Song rolled in their third birdie in four holes for a three-stroke lead.

“On those first few holes Liselotte was probably wondering who she was playing with,” said Sorenstam, who under-clubbed off the tee and found the water with a nine iron on the fourth.

“We struggled in the beginning,” said Neumann. “But the turning point came at the ninth and we took advantage of that.”

The “turning point” was Sorenstam's sublime approach – a six-iron to six feet – that led to an eagle for the team. It sparked a run of three birdies in five holes from the 10 th for a bogey-free back nine of 33 that secured Sweden the lead as the Koreans failed to maintain their challenge.

Song and partner Meena Lee lost their form off the tee and found far too much rough to remain a threat, eventually signing for a level par 72.

“We made a lot of birdies on the front nine and then we stopped hitting fairways,” said Song.

Sweden certainly enhanced their status as tournament favourites with a back-nine performance that was in stark contrast to how most of the field struggled with the final nine holes.

Their 33 was the day's tied best performance on the inward loop, equalling the Welsh duo of Becky Morgan and Becky Brewerton who finished the day at four under.

And it was Sorenstam's iron play that was largely responsible for it.

“I like this course. My strength is my irons and I think that's why I can make so many birdies here. But our gameplan worked out well and Liselotte made almost every putt she looked at. I think we're in the best position we can be going into the singles.”

South Africa 's Laurette Maritz and Ashleigh Simon were amongst those who struggled on the back nine, carding a 40 on their way to a 77 and a total of two over par that places them in tied 12 th place.

The South Africans were also fortunate to escape a disqualification, through no fault of their own. On the par-five second hole, amateur Simon hit their second deep into the left bush. They took a penalty drop and asked a rules official who should hit the next shot. According to the rules, Maritz should have hit. But the official got it wrong, declaring that Simon hit again. The South Africans went on to make double bogey on the hole and they had just teed off at the third when the official returned to inform them of her mistake.

Under normal circumstances they could have been disqualified for failing to correct the error before teeing off at the next hole. But because the mistake was made by a rules official they escaped penalty.

“I would have been really unhappy if that wasn't the case,” said the ever-polite Maritz.

Second round scores below:

-10 - A Sorenstam & L M Neumann 65 69

-7 - M Lee & B B Song 65 72

-6 - M Baena & C Baena 69 69, M Blomqvist & R E Hakkarainen 69 69

-4 - R D Brewerton & B Morgan 70 70

-2 - A Monke & M Nagl 70 72

-1 - C I Matthew & J C Moodie 70 73, M Prieto & P Marti Zambrano 69 74, P Creamer & N Gulbis 68 75

Par - A Hung & Y P Lin 67 77

+1 - L Kane & A J Eathorne 70 75

+2 - G Nocera & K. Icher 72 74, L Maritz & A S Simon (Am) 69 77

+3 - A Miyazato & S Yokomine 73 74, V Zorzi & S Cavalleri 73 74