Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

SOUTH BEND — Epson Tour money list leader Gabriela Ruffels vaulted to the top of the leaderboard after the second round of the Four Winds Invitational Friday.

Ruffels, from Australia, shot a 65 at the South Bend Country Club and is now 9-under par heading into Saturday’s final round. She leads former Notre Dame standout Becca Huffer and Agathe Laisne, of France, by to strokes.

Huffer, who missed the cut last year, shot 68 on Friday, while Laisne shot 69.

First-round leaer Michaela Finn, of Sweden, shot a 75 on Friday and now finds herself tied for 21st place and seven strokes behind Ruffels.

Four players are tied for fourth at 6-under par.

Ruffels, a two-time winner on the Epson Tour in 2023, finds herself in a similar position after 36 holes as she did in winning the Carlisle Arizona Women’s Golf Classic and the Garden City Charity Classic at Buffalo Dunes. She led going into the final round of both of those events.

“The experience of winning at any level is super important,” Ruffels said. “Having done it twice already this year, I feel like that experience can only help, and I can draw on those experiences. I just hope I can end up with the same result tomorrow.”

Ruffels has played two bogey-free rounds of golf at the South Bend Country Club.

“I kept my same gameplan of being aggressive, but today my putts were falling,” she said. “That’s golf, though, and it can happen like that. I am definitely happy with how it went today, and I just need to keep doing to same thing tomorrow.”

If Ruffels goes on to win Saturday, she will be the first person this year to secure her LPGA Tour card for the 2024 season.

“I kept my same gameplan of being aggressive, but today my putts were falling,” she said. “That’s golf, though, and it can happen like that. I am definitely happy with how it went today, and I just need to keep doing to same thing tomorrow.”

Laisne, who has a victory this season, will join Ruffels and Huffer in the final pairing Saturday.

She said she has enjoyed the support of the community.

“This week has just been super fun,” Huffer said. “The Notre Dame fans are out here watching me play so I am glad I am playing well for them. I started on the back nine today, so I was just trying to get through those holes and then attack the front nine. That was kind of what happened for me today, so I was pleased with my play today.”

The final group is scheduled to tee off at 9:42 a.m.