Bogey free 69 for Maguire as Vu upstages Ko to lead

Ronan MacNamara
|
|

Leona Maguire (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images)

Ronan MacNamara

Feature Interviews

Latest Stories

Leona Maguire made another steady move on day three of the Aramco Saudi Ladies Interntational as American Lilia Vu edged one ahead of Lydia Ko.

After a frustrating run of nine successive pars to open her third round, Maguire carded three birdies on her back nine to post a 69 for a seven-under total which leaves her eleven shots off the pace at Royal Greens.

The Cavan native registered birdies on the 10th, 14th and 16th holes and two closing pars capped a bogey-free round.

play-sharp-fill

The world number 11 lies in a share of 26th place.

Meanwhile 25-year-old Vu fired a round of seven-under-par to climb to the top of the leaderboard ahead of Ko on -18 with Emily Kristine Pedersen and Aditi Ashok two shots further back in third.

It was a good start to the day for Vu, who rolled in a birdie on the first, however, she dropped what was to be her only shot of the day on the second hole.

Back-to-back birdies on holes three, four and five put the American back in control and she rolled in further birdies on nine and 14.

Vu ended her round in style with a long eagle putt on the 18th to seal a 65 and move to the top of the leaderboard on 18-under-par.

“It was really fun,” she said. “I had a really long putt from the front of the green with a back left pin. It was about 24 paces and I just hit and hope on that one.

“I find I play my best when I’m having fun, so I’m just going to try and do that tomorrow. I had a lot of fun playing with Lydia [Ko] today. When you play with good players you tend to play better, and she just hits the ball so well.

“I was actually a little nervous coming here because it’s the start of my season and the first tournament of the year for me. I felt kind of rusty coming through and then once I started to trust myself, the game just got better on its own.”

Scoring HERE

Stay ahead of the game. Subscribe to our newsletter to get the latest Irish Golfer news straight to your inbox!

More News

Leave a comment


The reCAPTCHA verification period has expired. Please reload the page.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy & Terms of Service apply.