Kyriacou's rollercoaster round included just one par on the back nine at Royal Porthcawl, in Wales. She made two birdies and five bogeys and when she chipped in for an eagle at the 18th to finish on level par it looked just enough to make the cut at golf's last major of the year.
But as conditions worsened during the afternoon, most of the nine-strong Australian contingent were blown off course and only Minjee Lee and Grace Kim will join her in Saturday's third round.
Japan's Miyu Yamashita started and finished with short birdie putts and was flawless in between as she posted a seven-under 65 on Friday to build a three-shot lead over Rio Takeda.
Takeda was the only player within seven shots of Yamashita. Nelly Korda (72) and rising English star Lottie Woad (70) were among the top 10 and still nine shots behind at the halfway point.
Lee, Kim and New Zealand's defending champion Lydia Ko were among the 19-strong group who just made the cut on two-over par.
Meanwhile, everyone wanted to talk to Kyriacou about her slam dunk hole-in-one at the par-three eighth.
"I don't know - I'm not tall enough to see over the wall," she laughed. "Yeah, a pretty good shot. I didn't see it go in, which sucked, but the crowd went nuts, and I heard the flag. Didn't damage the hole, which was surprising, so it was quite clean. But my first official hole-in-one with no 'asterisk'. Pretty excited.
"I didn't want to celebrate if it didn't go in the hole. I thought maybe it hit the flag and just went somewhere, so the reaction is probably pretty cool for a hole-in-one. I just gave a running high five when we got to the green," she added.
Asked about the 'asterisk', Kyriacou explained: "I had a hole-in-one in a practice round for a prequel. There was witnesses, first ball, but it's not really the real deal, is it? Hopefully this one there's footage."
Conditions in Wales were tricky, she added. "That stretch at the end is really difficult, especially with how much it's blowing now. It's a bit of a blow. It doesn't feel like I made four bogeys on those holes. Honestly, if you play those four holes at one-over, you're doing pretty well.
"I had a good line in the bunker (at the 18th), which is pretty lucky because you can get actually creamed in these bunkers. I had a good lie into the wind. It was uphill. Pretty easy shot from the bunker for sure."
Meanwhile her team were looking forward to celebrating that hole-in-one. "I think everyone is going to use it as an excuse to get drunk on my team. I'm happy to do that for them (laughter)."
American Lindy Duncan shot a 70 to be four-under while Sweden's Madelene Sagstrom was a further stroke back in a group on three-under after a 69.
With the projected figure for the cut uncertain for much of the day, Australia's Kim was relieved to have made it with a birdie.
"To be honest, I didn't know the cut was at two. I thought was easily at three or four, so I wasn't very stressed, but I'm glad that putt went in.
"The wind was here to play today. All day we were having strong gusts, and it kind of switched a little bit, but it was just like minimum two clubs of wind."
Australia's Gabriela Ruffels missed the cut by a single shot, while Hira Naveed, Cassie Porter, Karis Davidson, Hannah Green and Kirsten Rudgeley also failed to progress.
With Reuters
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