| -15 L Maguire (Ire), Ko (NZ); -10 G Dryburgh (Sco), J Lee6 (Kor); -9 B Henderson (Can), A Nordqvist (Swe) |
| Selected others:-7 G Hall (Eng); -6 J Ewart Shadoff (Eng), N Korda (US) |
| Full leaderboard (external site) |
Ireland’s Leona Maguire carded a superb nine under par 63 to take a share of the lead into the final round of the LPGA Tour Championship in Florida.
Maguire, 27, had nine birdies in her bogey-free round to catch Lydia Ko, who started the day with a five-shot lead.
The leading pair will go head-to-head on Sunday with a tour-record $2m top prize at stake.
“It was nice to get a really low round under my belt, I’ll try to go out and do the same tomorrow,” said Maguire.
Maguire and Ko hold a five-shot advantage over Scotland’s Gemma Dryburgh and South Korea’s Jeongeun Lee6, who are tied for third on 10 under.
While New Zealand’s Ko looked shaky during her round of 70, Maguire produced a scintillating charge to vault up the leaderboard, shooting four under on her front nine.
Maguire had a run of four straight birdies either side of the turn and while she found a greenside bunker at the 17th, an up-and-down from the sand produced her ninth birdie.
The weather forecast for Sunday suggests the winds could get blustery with some rain also forecast, but Maguire appears to be relishing the prospect of some familiar conditions.
“We’ll have to wait to see how bad it gets,” she said.
“Maybe a little rain, a little wind. Nothing I’m not used to from Ireland.”
Canada’s Brooke Henderson also shot up the leaderboard following a seven-under round of 65 that included two eagles.
