Meadow leads Irish medal charge in Tokyo; Maguire frustrated after triple
Nelly Korda
Stephanie Meadow birdied three of her last six holes to keep her medal hopes alive in Tokyo as a "frustrated" Leona Maguire was left feeling she needs another 61 after a painful triple-bogey left her two shots further back heading into Saturday’s final round.
Displaying enormous patience, Meadow made two bogeys and two birdies to go to the turn in level par before she hit stellar approaches at the 13th, 17th and 18th and knocked in the birdie putts to card a three-under 68 that leaves her tied for 10th on seven-under-par.
The Jordanstown star (29) is eight shots behind American Nelly Korda, who shot a 69 to lead by three shots from India’s Aditi Ashok on 15-under par with New Zealand’s Lydia Ko, Australia’s Hannah Green, Denmark’s Emily Kristine Pedersen and Japan’s Mone Inami tied for third in the bronze medal position on 10-under.
Meadow is just five shots outside third place while Maguire is tied for 17th on five-under after she raced into a tie for fifth after four early birdies but then lost all momentum with a triple-bogey seven at the ninth at Kasumigaseki Country Club.
Tropical Storm Mirinae is expected to hit the Tokyo area early on Saturday but while play can go ahead in rain showers, organisers are worried about the threat of lightning.
It’s not forecast to arrive until after 2 pm, giving them a chance to get in the fourth round or complete potential playoffs for medals during breaks in the weather in the afternoon if needed.
Like most of the field, the Irish pair are keeping their fingers crossed for a 72-hole event after they endured another testing day in intense heat.
“Yeah definitely,” Meadow said of the importance of patience in her quest for birdies. “The entire front – well, most of the round – I felt like if I just kept hitting it in there at some point, they’d have to drop.
“I guess one thing is, I had a few misreads and a couple of bad putts, it wasn’t like I was hitting them perfect, so I couldn’t get too mad at myself. It was part of it, but it was nice to finish strong.”
She dropped a shot after bunkering her approach to the second but birdied the sixth and eighth before dropping a shot at the ninth, then picked up three shots on the back nine with the highlight her 164-yard approach to eight feet at the last.
“I hit it really well today it could have been a low one, but I’m just happy I gave myself a lot of opportunities and hopefully I can tie that together tomorrow with making some putts,” she said. “I’m in with a chance, so that’s all I can ask for.”
Maguire was frustrated only to shoot 70 after she started brilliantly with four birdies in her first eight holes.
After knocking in 15 footers at the first and second, she missed a chance from eight feet at the third but then made a seven-footer for a two at the seventh before hitting a wedge close to pick up another birdie at the par-five eighth.
She was tied fifth on eight-under, just two shots outside third place but then made a series of unforced errors at the 447-yard ninth and walked off with a momentum-sapping triple-bogey seven.
In the left rough off the tee, she tried to fire her long second under a tree but caught a branch and saw her ball knocked straight down in the rough.
Short with her third, she faced a tricky chip with her fifth but came up 12 feet short and two-putted.
“I’m frustrated,” said Leona, who would drop another shot at the 12th before getting a shot back with a birdie from 15 feet at the 17th.
“I got off to a much better start and I felt like I made up a lot of ground early and then just threw it away on nine, pretty much.
“I didn’t feel like I hit all that bad of a shot, like I thought I hit the second shot real nice and it just clipped that tree… Things could have gone a lot differently if that ball had just gone a little bit higher, a little bit lower but, that’s golf.”
Maguire shot a final round 61 at the Evian Championship just two weeks ago — equalling the lowest round in Major history for men and women — and feels something similar will be needed tomorrow if she is in with a shot.
“I think I’ve been playing the front nine pretty well, I haven’t quite figured out the back nine yet,” she said.
“Like I said, I need to hit more fairways, give myself chances, hole a few putts and try and do what I did last week at Evian I guess.”
Meadow and Maguire grew up playing amateur golf for Ireland together but have only played in the same pairing a handful of times as professionals.
Both were proud to tee it up alongside each other as LPGA professionals in the Olympic Games, seeing it as a sign of how far Irish women’s golf has come in recent years.
“I mean even for the both of us to be on the LPGA tour coming from a country that really had no one before, I think that’s pretty amazing,” Meadow said.
“We’ve come a long way. She’s had a great year and hopefully I can build off this and have a good end of the season. I think we’ve done pretty well for ourselves, so I think she is as proud as I am.”
As for leader Korda, the world No 1 looked set to streak away from the field as she birdied three of her first six holes to lead by five shots.
But she then bogeyed the par-five eighth and had to fight hard to par her way home with 10 successive pars.
“Probably my fight,” she said of what pleased her most. “I didn't have a really good back nine, I was kind of spraying it all over the place, I had some testy par putts, but made all pars and I fought really hard to stay in it really or ahead of it.”
Asked if she was playing as if the third round might be the last given the approaching typhoon, she said: “No. My mindset is 72 holes so I'm sticking to that.
“I'm trying to give myself opportunities and make them, that's all. I'm trying to stay as present as possible and see how it goes.”
Korda will tee it up in the final round at 00:18 Irish time with India’s Ashok, who shot a third-round 68, and 2016 silver medalist Ko, who shot a 66.
Meadow goes in the fourth last group at 23:42 with Finland’s Matilda Castren and China’s Shanshan Feng with Leona Maguire out an hour before the leaders at 23:18 with Switzerland’s Albane Valenzuela and Sanna Nuutinen of Finland.
