England’s Charley Hull and Holly Clyburn and South Korea’s Choi Eun-woo yesterday shared the third-round lead at the Australian Ladies Masters on a tough day for scoring on the Royal Pines resort course.
Clyburn shot a one-over 74 and Choi and Hull both had 75s for 54-hole totals of four-under 215.
Second-round leader Rebecca Artis of Australia (79), South Korean-born Australian Oh Su-hyun (72) and Tonje Daffinrud of Norway (72) were a stroke behind.
Only seven of 67 players who made the cut broke par.
Defending champion Cheyenne Woods, Tiger’s Woods’ niece, shot 73 after a 78 on Friday nearly forced her to miss the cut.
She is nine strokes behind the leaders, level with English veteran Laura Davies, who shot 76.
Clyburn said there was no big rivalry between her and British compatriot Hull.
“We’re good friends, we’ve got nothing against each other,” she said. “Everybody just thinks there’s a rivalry because we came on tour at the same time and had a great rookie year fight. Out here it’ll be actually really exciting and it’ll be a good final day.”
Hull, who began her round with a double-bogey on the par-4 first, ended with a birdie on the par-5 18th.
Taiwan’s Cheng Ssu-chia finished the day tied for seventh with an overall score of two-under 217, after she carded a two-over-par 74, bringing her down from her previous day’s fifth ranking.
Her compatriots Hou Yu-sang, Chen Yu-ju and Chien Pei-yun made the cut, but finished further down the field, with Hou tied for 30th on four-over 223 and Chen and Chien tied for 37th on five-over 224.
Fellow Taiwanese Yeh Hsin-ning and Kuo Ai-chen had failed to make the cut after Friday’s second round.
Additional reporting by Jenny Munro
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