Golf: Lydia Ko drops down Evian Championship leaderboard after rocky round; Steven Alker leads Senior Open in Wales

Lydia Ko finished five-over for her second round at the Evian Championship. Photo / Getty Images

A disastrous start to her second round at the Evian Championship has seen Lydia Ko fall down the leaderboard after carding a five-over 76 at the Evian Resort Golf Club in France.

Ko started the day off with two bogeys in her first three holes, before a triple bogey fifth left her with work to do for the rest of her round. While she had two birdies on the back nine, those were cancelled out by another two bogeys.

The round offset the blistering start the world No 3 made in her opening round, where she finished five-under to hold a share of second place.

After her second round, Ko sits even in a tie for 22nd. France’s Celine Boutier finished the day on top of the leaderboard with a two-under second round seeing her tournament score move to seven-under at the halfway point.

Elsewhere in Europe, fellow Kiwi Steven Alker will take a one-shot lead into the weekend at the Senior Open in Wales as he looks for his second Senior Major Championship victory.

After a solid round that featured four birdies and one bogey, the 52-year-old ended his birthday at the top of the leaderboard at four-under through two rounds at Royal Porthcawl.

“I’ve had two days plodding away, taking my chances when I could on the odd par five and odd par four,” he said.

“Different wind today. It switched around a little bit from a couple different directions; it was actually fun. It was enjoyable. I actually love playing links golf and kind of relishing it to be honest.

“I think I’ve hit everything in my bag this week, and that’s a good sign. That’s the sign of a good golf course when you hit every club in your bag.”

In the United States, Ryan Fox will miss the cut at the 3M Open in Minnesota, sitting well off the pace at five-over after completing his second round on Saturday.

Fox got off to a bad start, finding the water off the tee of the par-four second on his way to a double bogey, before carding another double bogey on the par-three eighth.

His back nine had been clean until bogeys on the 14th and 15th. He finished strong with back-to-back birdies, but won’t feature in the weekend with the projected cut line at four-under.