LEONA MAGUIRE SHOT a 69 to share fifth heading into the final day of stroke play at the LPGA Match Play tournament in Las Vegas.
Cavan woman Maguire fired six birdies, dropping three shots, and is well positioned to advance to the knockout phase of the mixed-format tournament at Shadow Creek.
There will be a further round of stroke play on Friday, with the top eight finishers advancing to Saturday’s single-elimination match-play bracket. The semi-finals will take place on Saturday afternoon, all of which will lead to Sunday’s final.
Sitting on three under par for her tournament, Maguire is just a shot off four joint leaders: South Korea’s Kim Sei-young, Spain’s Carlota Ciganda and Americans Angel Yin and Rose Zhang.
Both Maguire and Japan’s Minami Katsu are two strokes clear of the rest of the chasing pack in the race to make the top eight.
“I took better advantage of the par 5s today and played the par 3s really nice, so that was the key difference between today and yesterday,” said Maguire, whose 69 followed an opening score of 72 on Wednesday.
“I won’t watch the leaderboard an awful lot tomorrow. I’m sure my caddy will keep an eye on it and I suppose holes like 16 and 18 coming down the stretch, if there’s something that needs to be done, it might change a decision.
“But for the most part, it’s the same as any other week: trying to finish as high up as you can.”
Stephanie Meadow is also nicely perched heading into the final round of stroke play. The Jordanstown native registered her second successive even-par 72 and is in a share for ninth, only one shot outside qualification.
