Olivia Mehaffey moved from the cutline to within seven shots of the lead heading into the final round of the Ladies Open By Pickala Rock Resort.
Mehaffey was four-over after 12 holes of her opening round before play was suspended for darkness following a pair of rain delays and she returned to complete her final six holes of round one in three-under.
The Tandragee native continued her hot form with an opening eagle in her afternoon second round before three birdies in four holes saw her turn in 32.
Mehaffey then carded two birdies and two bogeys but bounced back to birdie two of her last three holes to climb to five-under and into a share of 11th.
Johanna Gustavsson will take a one-shot lead into the final round on twelve-under-par.
After finishing her first round early on Friday following yesterday’s storm suspension, the Swede got straight to business when she made three birdies in a row on the 5th, 6th and 7th.
With Carmen Alonso leading the way ahead of her, Gustavsson then piled pressure on the Spaniard when she posted two more red numbers on the 11th and 12th.
She said: “We played until 22:00 yesterday evening and we were up early this morning finishing the first round so I didn’t sleep as many hours as I liked.”
A bogey on the 13th briefly halted Gustavsson’s momentum before two brilliant birdies on the 16th and 18th catapulted the 30-year-old into the lead on 12-under-par.
“I holed a lot of putts today,” she continued. “Yesterday I hit it a bit closer but today I rolled in more putts. I’m playing solid. One dropped shot. Very solid.
“I like the grass around here. It’s obviously very similar to Swedish grass – probably the same – so I enjoyed the chipping but it helps when the putter is also hot.”
One behind her is the before-mentioned Alonso, who produced another stellar display to fire a 69 (-3) despite bogeying her final two holes.
“I played really good,” the Spaniard said, who also eagled the par-5 8th for the second day in a row. “The front nine was four-under so I was very happy, but then on the back nine I finished with two bogeys that make me a little bit crazy, but that’s golf.
“The course is obviously for the long hitters. You can hit it everywhere and the ball is still going to be there. When you arrive to the 17th it’s a different course, maybe that’s why I made the two bogeys. But no, it was just two bad shots today and that’s it.”
Scoring HERE
Leave a comment