Stephanie Meadow will need to turn her fortunes around in the final round of the Cognizant Founders Cup as she went the wrong way on the leaderboard on a rough moving day in New Jersey.
The Jordanstown woman made the cut on the number on Friday but couldn’t take advantage of that as a one-over 73 saw her slip down into a share of 69th at Upper Montclair Country Club to level-par for the tournament.
She will not be winning the tournament as she is 17 shots back of leader Minjee Lee, but she will at least hope to come out swinging in Sunday’s final round to try and maintain a run of three top-30 finishes in her last five events.
It was a double-bogey on her back nine that did the damage for Meadow, who had started very well, with birdies at the second and fifth to move in the right direction, but a bogey at the par-four seventh had her one-under at the turn before she dropped two shots at the par-four 13th.
That has her down at the bottom end of those who made it into the weekend but with one round remaining to improve her position, she can play with little pressure on her shoulders and try to climb the standings again.
Meanwhile, Lee will take a one-shot lead into the final round after her three-under 69 took her to 17-under-par, one shot clear of Madelene Sagstrom in New Jersey.
The Australian mixed an eagle and three birdies with two bogeys to maintain her slender advantage from the second round, with Swede Sagstrom firing five birdies in a bogey-free 67 – the best performance of round three – that has her one shot behind at 16-under.
Lexi Thompson is still in contention after a 69 moved her up to 14-under and in solo third, while Angel Yin is just hanging in there at 11-under in solo fourth, with Paula Reto, Meghan Khang and Ally Ewing rounding out the top-five at nine-under for the week.
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