Leona Maguire’s nine-under 63 was the story of the day, but South Africa’s Casandra Alexander continues to be the story of the week and she’ll take a three-stroke lead into the final round of the KPMG Women’s Irish Open.
The current LET Order of Merit number one didn’t quite have it all her own way on Saturday. Three birdies in her opening five holes suggested that the runaway victory she threatened over the first 36 holes might well happen, but each subsequent birdie was followed by a bogey and playing partner Sara Kouskova of the Czech Republic was steadily eating into the lead.
And at the end of the day, that lead was two shots less than she had at the start of the third round, but though she was a little frustrated at how she played the back nine after the 45-minute rain delay, she admitted that she’d have been delighted with a three-stroke 54-hole lead at the start of the week.
“I got a little bit impatient on the back nine, but I didn’t actually need to,” Alexander said. “I still shot a red number, although it was a slow back nine. It didn’t really feel like an under-par round, but yeah, I still shot thee-under.
“Obviously winning is the number one goal. You know, we’ve come second too many times, but we’ve never been in this position so I just want to make sure I give myself as many birdie opportunities, hole a few putts and see if we can get the job done.
“If someone comes out and shoots lights out and that’s the situation, that’s something I can’t control. So I’m just going to go out there tomorrow and give it my best and see if it’s enough.”
Maguire’s 63 catapulted her up into the top-10 at 11-under, and she’s now the leading Irishwoman in the field at T6 and retains an outside chance of staging a final-round smash-and-grab.
Maguire felt that she could easily have been at least six or seven shots better off after a second round in which next to nothing seemed to find the hole from outside six feet, but her tee-to-green game was every bit as good on Saturday and the putter finally came to the party.
“I hit some really, really nice approach shots and I suppose the last two years the approach shots have been the thing that maybe let me down a bit and been a little bit inconsistent here and there,” Maguire said.
“They’ve been really solid this week in general. So, if I continue to keep holing putts and we’ll try and do one more low one tomorrow.
“Yeah, it’s probably going to need another one of the same, but the goal this morning was to get to double digits and at least we’re in double digits now,” she said.
“So, Casandra’s [Alexander] obviously got quite a big, a big head start, but we’ll just try and make her sweat a little bit if we can.”
Anna Foster’s bogey-free 66 lifted her into a share of 15th place. The Elm Park woman was coming off her highest LET finish to date with a runner-up placing at the Swiss Ladies Open, and she admitted that the confidence boost and comfort it provided have proved useful in the high-pressure situation of playing at home.
“I think it was a great momentum-builder for me,” she said of posting her best LET finish to date. “And just even like the self confidence because coming into this week, there’s a lot of distractions and stuff this week.
“So just, to be at least thinking my golf is in a good place, that definitely just settled me a bit before we started.”
Lauren Walsh and Aine Donegan sit alongside one another at -5 and sharing 24th. Walsh carded eight birdies but a second triple bogey of the week proved costly and resulted in a five-under 67, while Donegan made seven birdies of her own but also carded three bogeys.
Canice Screene, who began the day as the leading Irishwoman, got off to a nice start and got to three-under at the turn, but a bogey on the par-5 10th shortly before play was suspended killed her momentum and she made another bogey on the 16th before a horror finish where she made a ’10’ on the closing hole to fall back to one-under-par.
Annabel Wilson completes the Irish at level-par after a one-over 73.
Maguire will play in the penultimate group on Sunday, teeing off at 11:46, with Alexander, Kouskova and Sweden’s Kaisa Arwefjall making up the final threeball at 11:58.
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