England’s Lottie Woad will take a three-shot lead heading into the final round of the LPGA Tour’s Kroger Queen City Championship in Ohio.
Woad, who is expected to make his European debut at the Solheim Cup this September, shot a 5-under 65 in the third round at Maketewah Country Club in poor weather to top the leaderboard after a second-round 64.
The world No. 10 is at 11 under par, taking an overwhelming lead over America’s Amanda Doherty, while Ryu Hye-ran ranked third, four strokes behind three-time major champion Lydia Ko.
Lydia Ko shot 69 with 4 birdies and 3 bogeys in the third round.
Jeeno Thitikul was part of a 5-under jam that also included Rose Zhang, while world No. 1 Nelly Korda and overnight co-leader Jin Young Ko were tied for 19th and nine strokes behind after shots of 72 and 75 respectively.
Defending champion Charley Hull was ranked second after opening day, but fell to 3-over-par for the tournament after recording just one birdie for a 3-over 73 and three straight bogeys.
Charley Hull didn’t have a fast start to the week.
How Woad advanced in Ohio.
Rod recorded a birdie at the par-4 3rd hole, making continuous gains from the 7th hole, and canceled the bogey with consecutive birdies at the par 3 9th hole.
She took advantage of the par-5 14th hole and added a seventh birdie on the 16th to get to 12 under par, and after a bogey on the second hole, Woad cut the lead over Doherty to three strokes.
“I tried to treat last week as a little bit of an anomaly,” said Ward, who missed the cut at last week’s Mizuho America Open. “I had been playing pretty solid consistently before, but the course was a bit funky in some ways, so I just tried to ignore it.
“I had a bad putt last week, and I realized my putter grip wasn’t straight, so I bought a new putter grip. My putting was so bad that I was clearly trying to find an excuse that wasn’t me. It was the grip.”
“I’ve been hitting a lot of fairways and greens over the last two days. I didn’t hit many fairways the first day. (Fairway) If you do that, I think there will be a lot of opportunity around here.”
Forsterling finished second at the Amundi German Masters.
Alexandra Forsterling’s dazzling birdie burst on the Women’s European Tour helped her take a two-stroke lead into the final round of the Amundi German Masters.
The German hit four straight birdies starting on the 12th hole to shoot a 4-under 69, leaving him at 10 under despite taking advantage of two par 5s in his final three holes.
Sara Kouskova, the interim leader with a level-par 73, was tied for second with Chiara Noja, while Germany’s Leonie Harm finished fourth with Canada’s Anna Huang.
Esther Henseleit was five strokes behind after making two double bogeys on a 4-over 77, while England’s Esme Hamilton headed into the final day tied for 8th at 4-under with a 1-over 74.
The Amundi German Masters will be broadcast live on Sky Sports Golf from noon on Sunday, while the Kroger Queen City Championship will be broadcast live on Sky Sports Mix from 8pm. Access or stream Sky Sports with no contract.
