Lucie Malchirand fired a four-under 68 to open up a three-shot cushion into Saturday’s final round at the Hauts de France Open on the LET Access Series (LETAS).
The Frenchwoman, who shot an opening round 67, leads the trio of Switzerland’s Natalie Armbruester (68), England’s Ellie Gower (67) and Ireland’s Canice Screene (69) by three strokes at Aa Saint-Omer Golf Club.
This year’s tournament is once again co-sanctioned with the men’s Alps Tour. The 132-player field features equal representation from both tours, at 66 players apiece. While all players will compete on the same course under identical conditions, they will contend for separate prize funds and individual titles.
Starting from the 1st tee, Malchirand had the exact same red-hot start to her round as Thursday with three birdies in her opening three holes before adding another on hole 5.
“That makes me feel like so confident for the round,” she said. “So that was great just to start on the morning with like less pressure. It was a great round. I tried to keep my head cool after all these birdies on the first nine.
“It was not aggressive birdies. My putting was still amazing. And I made a chip in on hole two for birdie, so I was like today looks good. Everything looks with me. I played around even-par on the back nine, which was pretty nice, more stressful, but it was still a good round.”
While her scorecard shows a five on the par-5 7th hole, it was far from a routine par. “My drive hit the trees and then went back on the fairway,” she said. “So I hit a lay-up and then an awful wedge and then I chipped it off the green.
“And I chipped in for the par. It was kind of a weird par, but it was still a par. On the back nine, I tried to be less aggressive and try to just put my ball on the fairway, and the green. And I made a lot of pars, so that was okay.”
On the back nine, Malchirand trade birdies on holes 12 and 15 with bogeys on holes 11 and 16. She also received a pleasant surprise on the 13th hole.
“My dad just came and surprised me,” she said. “So that was nice to see him walking the course. It’s always better to have my dad with me. He’s most of the time with me, but not this week.
“When he saw my name on top of the leaderboard he was like, okay, I had to come so he just came to follow me.”
The last time Malchirand found herself with such a commanding final round lead was in February 2025 at the Standard Bank Ladies Open on the Sunshine Ladies Tour in Cape Town, South Africa. She went on to win that tournament.
“It’s been a while,” she said. “It’s been great and that’s what I want. I’m just practicing every week to be there so that’s nice. I really want it and I think I can do it.
“My goal is just to play the best round I can tomorrow, trying to keep doing what I’m doing since the beginning. Just hit the fairways, hit good drives. I’m trying to hit like bombs with my driver and it’s working at the moment.
“My pitching is doing amazing and I will try to put more wedges close to the hole. I think that would be great. We’ll see tomorrow. I’m just going to have some rest, maybe hit some drives and see my dad.”
Further down the leaderboard, Austria’s Isabella Holpfer (68) sits in solo fifth at five-under overall, while the quartet of Scotland’s Lorna Mcclymont (68), Malaysia’s Genevieve Ling (67), Finland’s Tiia Koivisto (71) and England’s Jessica Hall (69) are in a tie for sixth at four-under.
Another stroke behind at three-under come United Arab Emirates’ Hyeonji Kang (71), England’s Thalia Martin (70), Finland’s Anna Backman (72), England’s Bel Wardle (70) and Australia’s Hannah Reeves.
Order of Merit leader Lauren Holmey is in a tie for 15th with four other players and seven shots behind leader Malchirand at two-under overall.
Thirty-one players made the cut at even-par. Some notable names to miss the cut include Ireland’s Beth Coulter (+3), Norway’s Silje Torvund Ohma (+3), Slovakia’s Michaela Vavrova (+4), Czechia’s Tereza Zapletal Kozeluhova (+4) and Germany’s Hanna Tauber (+4).
Saturday’s final round begins at 9.40am (local time), with the final flight of Malchirand, Armbruester and Gower teeing off at 11.30am.
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