Olivia Mehaffey’s hopes of earning her LPGA Tour card for next season look all but over after a level-par 72 in her third round in Florida left her 12 shots off the pace at the Second Stage Q-School qualifier.
The 24-year-old needs to finish in the top-45 and ties in order to reach the Final Stage next month, but her chances are doing so are remote as she sits 10-over for the week, with the current cut mark lying two-under.
Needing to make a significant move in order to realistically keep her chances alive at The Plantation Preserve, Mehaffey could only mix three birdies with three bogeys in her third round at the Bobcat Course to leave her where she started the day.
Starting at the 10th, the Tandragee woman bogeyed the 13th and birdied the 16th in a fairly routine back nine, and then added birdies at the 1st and 6th and bogeys on the 4th and 8th to card a 72.
It means Mehaffey, who plays her final round at the Panther Course today, needs something miraculous to progress to the Final Stage as she will likely need to get back into red figures to stand any chance of moving on.
Currently the mark required is two-under and it seems unlikely that will fluctuate too wildly on the final day, so Mehaffey will have to claw back double-figure shots in one day.
At the top, China’s Ruoning Yin maintained her second round lead after day three as a three-under 69 kept her one shot clear at 13-under, with former World Amateur No.1 Pauline Roussin-Bouchard tucked in right behind her.
Barring collapses in their final round, both of them look to be safely through to the Final Stage already, as do a group of four players – including Mehaffey’s former college team-mate Linn Grant – at nine-under.
US Curtis Cup stars Allisen Corpuz and Gina Kim look to be well-placed too at seven- and six-under respectively, with England’s Anita Uwadia currently the only British player set to progress after a third round 70 took her to two-under for the week and just inside the cut line.
Mehaffey tees off her final round from the 10th tee at the Panther Course at 1pm Irish time on Sunday.
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