early birdie, Judithanne Astwood matched her career-best round at a world amateur championship with an 81 yesterday in second-round play here at Marine Drive Golf Club.

Astwood, five over par after four holes, holed a 20-foot putt for birdie at the 512-yard fifth, and played the remaining 14 holes in a solid four over par.

She was the only Bermudian to score well as the play of Kim Marshall and Madeline Joell mirrored yesterday's dreary conditions. Marshall, after an opening-round 84, shot 89 while Joell went out in 50 en route to a 93, 10 strokes off her team-leading 83 in the opening round.

With the best two scores counting, Bermuda's two-day total of 337 leaves the team in 28th place, ahead of Guatemala, Hong Kong and Costa Rica in the 31-country field. Brazil, who trailed Bermuda after the first round, made up 12 strokes yesterday and sit 26th.

Great Britain/Ireland continue to set the pace, thanks in part to individual co-leader Catriona Lambert, who fashioned a one-over 73 yesterday to go with her opening-round 70. The leaders are on 292 while New Zealand are second on 294, Spain and France are joint third on 295 and Sweden have moved into fifth spot on 296. The United States, winners 11 times in the 14 occasions the tournament has been held, sit seventh on 298, a stroke behind Australia.

Leading Sweden's charge yesterday was Annika Sorenstam, who shaved a stroke off the 31-year-old course record for amateur women with a four-under 68, which included six birdies. She is tied with Lambert for the individual lead on 143.

Astwood said she began to feel comfortable on the 6,120-yard Marine Drive layout after her 20-footer on the fifth fell in for a birdie. "My confidence was there after that,'' she said. "I've been afraid of the course because I'm short off the tee compared to the players I've been playing with here. But I'm getting less afraid of the course as we go along. The 81 is very encouraging.'' Astwood, who played her entire first round on Wednesday in a steady downpour, welcomed the cool, dry conditions yesterday. "That helped my frame of mind,'' she said. "The weather was a bit better today. When you've got a lot of rain gear on it's difficult to swing at the ball.'' Astwood cut five strokes off her front nine of 46 in the first round, and finished well on the back yesterday, too, with pars on five of the last seven holes.

Marshall's round began well enough with a par on the first hole, but her day began to unravel minutes later. She drove into the trees off the second tee, hit another tree with her punch-out attempt and settled for a double-bogey seven. She finished the day with five pars, nine bogeys and four double-bogeys.

Marshall said her troubles on the par-five holes -- she had two doubles, a bogey and a par -- summed up her day.

"Those par-fives really killed me,'' she said. "You normally look forward to the par-fives as birdie holes, but I didn't play them well at all today. It seemed like I was in the trees all day, and having to scramble for pars.'' Joell's swing fell apart after a triple-bogey on the fifth hole. After hitting her second shot out of bounds, Joell stickhandled around the green before one-putting for an eight.

"My confidence was shot after that,'' she lamented. "I started quitting on the ball. I was scared to hit through it and you can't do that. It felt like I hadn't played golf before. It was ugly.'' Joell, who finished the day with triple-bogeys and the same number of double-bogeys, said her disaster at the fifth was magnified by the importance of the tournament.

"When I play in this tournament, I think a bad hole is the end of the world,'' she said. "Golf is such a mental game and after that hole, I just couldn't get myself into a positive frame of mind.''