Dunne and Clews in charge at Baltray
Skerries' Maria Dunne co-leads the Irish Women's Open Strokeplay for the Reddan-Garvey Trophy at County Louth
Skerries' Maria Dunne and England's Gemma Clews are tied for the leading ahead of today's final round of the Irish Women's Open Strokeplay for the Clarrie Reddan and Philomena Garvey Trophy at Co. Louth
Recent Welsh Ladies Strokeplay winner Clews shot a level par 75 and Dunne a 76 to leave them on eight under par, two ahead of England's Lianna Bailey.
“I’ve played in this event quite a few times, it’s always good to be here," Clews said. "I finished level today with a bit of a dodgy finish dropping two in the last three holes but the course is good and is playing tough today, the wind got up and it was a different wind to yesterday as well which made a difference.
"My all round game is pretty good, I’m controlling my ball pretty well, especially off the tee. Hopefully I can use a bit of confidence from last week and keep doing what I’m doing really.”
Germany's Carolin Kauffman lies fourth, three behind on four over after a 76 while
Georgia Price and Louisa Brunt, both from England, carded best of the day three under 72s.
"It was tough today, it was demanding especially with the wind how it was today, steady golf is good around here," said Price, who is four behind in fifth alongside Wales' Kath O'Connor.
”I planned to take some of the trouble out of play which I think was important, because on some of the holes there were bunkers in play that you didn’t even have to think about yesterday, you had to think a lot more out there today.”
Lucy Simpson is ninth on two under with Valerie Clancy and Rachel Thompson tied 10th on one-under.
The best of the Irish scores in round two came from Ciara Casey (Hermitage) who added a one under 74 to her opening 76 to share 13th on level par.
“I was five-under through 14 and bogeyed the last fourbut it’s still a good score and there are a lot of good positives to take out of the day and it won’t leave me in a bad position coming into Sunday," said Casey, who will take up a golf scholarship at Maynooth University in the autumn.
The final round will begin at 8.00am on Sunday morning with the final group of Dunne, Clews and Bailey teeing off at 10.40am with two legends of the game in Philomena Garvey and Clarrie Reddan recognised in the naming of the trophy in their honour.
Speaking at a reception in honour the County Louth ladies, Mary McKenna said: “I was lucky enough to have known both women and there is no doubt that they contributed to what I was able to achieve in the game.”
