Leona Maguire produced a very solid third round of 69 strokes at the Gainbridge LPGA to move inside the top-20 but at six-under par finds herself seven shots adrift of the phenomenal pace being set by America’s Nelly Korda, who is looking to make it consecutive wins for the Korda family on the LPGA circuit.
Maguire returned a total of five birdies in her round, four of which came after the double blow of bogeys on the third and the fifth holes as she fought her way back to finish in tied 16th place after the third round at Lake Nona Golf & Country Club in Florida.
Korda, on thirteen-under par now takes a one shot lead over Thailand’s Patty Tavatanakit into the final round while a three-way tie for third a further two strokes back sees Angela Yin, Jin Young Ko and Lydia Ko, who was the 36-hole leader, hot on their heels.
All eyes were understandably on Annika Sorenstam though as she returned to action for a once-off event with this tournament taking place at her home course. The 50-year old Swede remarkably made the cut but the third round was not one for the annals of her golfing life as she unfortunately slid to the bottom of the leaderboard with a round of 79.
Sorenstam remained upbeat though and commented; “We put every effort into every single shot. Just wasn’t meant to be today. Another day tomorrow. I got two bonus days this week, so that’s a good thing.”
But it’s Korda at the head of proceedings and she’ll be hard to catch. “Any time you can get ahead of the pack going into Sunday is a positive,” Korda said. “There are some good players there, so it’ll take good golf to win.”
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