Yealimi Noh capitalised on Haeran Ryu’s stumble to seize the third-round lead on the AIG Ladies’s Open, the place Lottie Woad and Charley Hull stayed in title competition.
Ryu held the midway lead in pursuit of a 3rd consecutive main victory and pulled 4 clear at Royal Lytham & St Annes, solely to card 5 bogeys in an erratic eight-hole stretch on her strategy to a three-over 74.
Noh got here into the weekend two again and fell additional behind after two bogeys in her first 5 holes, earlier than a birdie burst across the flip helped her submit a two-under 69 and open a three-shot lead.
The American heads into the ultimate day on seven underneath as she chases a maiden main title, with Ryu among the many logjam in tied-second alongside Jeeno Thitkul, Lucy Li and Shiho Kuwaki.
Woad heads into the day 4 again and Hull sits an extra stroke behind, leaving each Englishwoman primed to make a final-day cost, whereas a final-hole double-bogey dropped world No 1 Nelly Korda eight pictures adrift on one over.
How Noh hit the entrance at Royal Lytham
Ryu began the day one forward of Kuwaki however shortly took management with back-to-back birdies from the third, which moved her 4 forward when her enjoying associate made bogey.
Each gamers bogeyed the par-three subsequent earlier than Ryu restored her four-shot buffer by benefiting from the par-five subsequent, solely to see her spherical first unravel when a wayward drive on the par-five seventh pressured her to take an unplayable within the tough.
Haeran Ryu has already gained the KPMG Ladies’s PGA Championship and the Amundi Evian Championship this season
She finally scrambled a bogey and dropped a shot on the subsequent, as Kuwaki posted birdies on the seventh and ninth to succeed in the flip only one behind Ryu.
The in a single day benefit disappeared when Ryu took two makes an attempt out of the sand to bogey the par-four tenth, whereas Noh – enjoying within the group forward – posted three consecutive birdies from the ninth to make it a three-way tie on the high.
Ryu’s struggles continued as she bogeyed the twelfth and 14th, whereas Kuwaki failed to save lots of par on the fifteenth and allowed Noh to open up a two-shot cushion with a five-foot birdie on the sixteenth.
The lead elevated when Kuwaki bogeyed her penultimate gap and didn’t discover a closing birdie, with Noh now seeking to turn into the primary American to make the AIG Ladies’s Open their maiden main since Mo Martin in 2014 and finish the Korda and Ryu dominance in girls’s majors.
Woad and Hull maintain British hopes alive
Henseleit posted 5 birdies in her first 10 holes earlier than bogeying the fifteenth, with the German – already set for Solheim Cup qualification through her world rating – needing solo second or higher to overhaul Chiara Tamburlini on the Women European Tour checklist.
Woad may overtake Tamburlini with a solo third end or higher, with the world No 5 mixing three birdies with two bogeys to sit down well-placed to problem for a maiden main title.
“It is a good place to be in,” Woad instructed Sky Sports activities. “I must be a number of again. I will follow my recreation plan and see what occurs. I felt a bit higher on the greens as we speak and I scrambled fairly properly to get round.”
Hull fell 10 pictures behind after three bogeys in her opening six holes, then rebounded with back-to-back birdies over the subsequent two holes earlier than dropping one other shot on the tenth.
The followers’ favorite, a two-time runner-up on the AIG Ladies’s Open within the final three years, then rallied late to submit successive birdies from the fifteenth to salvage a level-par 71.
“I am fairly proud as the primary six holes I performed like a ten handicapper, I felt,” Hull instructed Sky Sports activities. “I missed three putts I ought to have holed from 5 toes and in, which might have stored me degree par as an alternative of being three over.
“I had a little bit of a bounce again and I used to be fairly pleased with the way in which I completed. was leaderboards – there’s not many out on the golf course, so it is fairly laborious to see the place you are at – and I do wish to have a sneaky look.”
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