World No 1 Nelly Korda shot to the top of the leaderboard at eight under par on the second day of the Women’s Open at St Andrews.
Korda won six times in seven starts on the LPGA Tour between January and May, including her second Major at the Chevron Championship.
However, she failed to even make the cut at two of the last three Majors since.
A bogey-free round of 68 took the American three strokes clear of defending champion Lilia Vu and Britain’s Charley Hull. The trio played together in a star-studded group on the opening two days.
Korda credited a change of putter for a turnaround in her form from the last couple of months.
“I just needed something different to look at. Sometimes you just need to switch it up,” she said after battling heavy wind and rain on Scotland’s east coast.
“I’m just trying to stay very present and not think about anything other than one shot at a time, and whatever golf and links golf throws at me, I’m going to take it head on.
“I think when the conditions are a little tougher, in a sense, normal golf is thrown out the window and you’re just trying to play the wind.”
World No 2 Vu was two under for the day to ease into contention.
Hall had topped the leaderboard on Thursday, but missed the chance to move into pole position for her first Major after an even par round left her three shots back.
“I actually I thought I hit it just as good as yesterday,” said Hall. “I just missed three or four four-foot putts, but that was early on in my round. But then, once I got over that, I just fell back into my stroke and it felt fine.
South Africans Alexander Casandra and Ashleigh Buhai shared fifth position on three under after carding 68 and 69 respectively, along with Olympic gold medallist Lydia Ko.
