With one of the rounds of the day on Friday, a 4-under 68, Steph Kyriacou has fought her way back in at the AIG Women's Open at St. Andrews, where world no.1 Nelly Korda leads at the halfway mark.

Kyriacou, tied-21st at even-par, is one of two Australians to make the cut, with Grace Kim also improving on her opening round, carding a 1-under 71, to make the cut on the number at 4-over.

Olympic pair Hannah Green and Minjee Lee were unable to find the low-round they needed to keep their week alive, so to Hira Naveed, Gabi Ruffels and legend Karrie Webb.

Out in the morning groups, Kyriacou was offered some respite from the tough day one conditions which contributed to her opening 4-over 76, and beginning on the 10th tee, she got to work early making up the ground she knew she had to.

"I think I just took advantage of the early tee time, like I said before, it wasn't too windy, it was like a little breeze," she said.

"I definitely made some birdies on my front nine, and then just kind of tried to play the best I could on the back."

Birdies straight away at 12 and 14 gave the Sydneysider some momentum, but she wasn't done with St. Andrews' back-nine yet, making three consecutive birdies at 16,17 and 18 before making the turn.

"I'm going to say 17 was the highlight, because that's a bloody hard hole," Kyriacou said proudly.

"To birdie that was pretty cool, I did hole like a 50-foot putt, but I'll take it.

"I was just trying to two-putt, but it went in."

After nine holes, Kyriacou remarkably found herself in the red numbers for the first time this week, however her first bogey of the day at the first hole brought her back to even.

She fired straight back on the Scottish links with a birdie on two, and remained 1-under for the championship for the next six holes, until a late bogey at her final hole.

Leader Nelly Korda (68,68) is three shots clear at the top at 8-under, with defending champion Lilia Vu and round one leader Charley Hull tied-second at 5-under.

New Zealander Lydia Ko has continued her strong form from the Paris Olympics, tied-fifth at 3-under at the halfway mark.

Kyriacou is out at 12:45pm local time in her third round, and so will be unable to rely on the benign morning conditions for scoring.

Likening the conditions this week at St. Andrews to her St. Michaels home in Sydney, Kyriacou will instead have to lean on that experience and familiarity to continue her fight back on day three.

"My golf course at home is right on the water, so I play in the wind a lot, so it's kind of a little taste of home," she said.

"There's something about being creative and the challenge that gets me excited."