France’s Celine Boutier leads the way heading into the final day of the 2023 Amundi Evian Championship, but there are plenty of Europeans who made a move on Saturday.
Three-time LET winner Boutier carded a third round of 67 (-4) which included five birdies and just one bogey at Evian Resort Golf Club to give herself a three-shot lead going into the final day.
The next Europeans on the leaderboard are Scotland’s Gemma Dryburgh and Norway’s Celine Borge, who are currently in a share of ninth place.
Dryburgh has had a solid and consistent first three days at Evian producing rounds of 70-70-69 to put herself into the top 10.
Speaking after her third round, the Scotswoman said: “I’m feeling good, I’m hitting the ball well so I have lots of confidence there. I’m rolling the putts pretty good. I holed a few nice putts on the front nine, which was nice, and then I cooled off a bit on the back. Overall, it was a really good day.
“Friday was really tough, it was quite windy and they were gusty winds with some tough pins as well. Some of the par-fives were pushed up today which was nice. We’ll see what we have tomorrow as well.”
Norway’s Borge has also had a solid first few days carding rounds of 67-72-70 at Evian to put herself into the top 10 heading into the final day.
One shot further back in a tie for 14th place are three Europeans with Ireland’s Leona Maguire alongside Swedish duo Anna Nordqvist and Linn Grant.
It was a very good moving day for world number 11 Maguire, who fired a round of 67 (-4), in the fourth major of the year.
The Irishwoman began with a birdie at the first and then made back-to-back birdies on five and six before adding another on the ninth.
A fifth birdie of the day came on 14 before she unfortunately dropped a shot at the last to seal her round of four-under.
“It was really nice,” said Maguire, who shot a 61 in the final round here in 2021. “I got off to a good start. It’s always nice to birdie the first. Then I birdied five and six and then sort of a bonus chip in on 9 on the back there. Nice chip in there.
“Overall, it was a pretty steady round. I feel like the course was set up a little easier today obviously than yesterday. You kind of had to try and be a bit more aggressive, try and take your chances.
“I didn’t quite play the par-fives as well as I would’ve liked, but overall any time you shoot under par around here it’s pretty good.
“Tomorrow if it’s set up like today you have to go low, if it’s set up like yesterday you have to be more conservative. You just have to see what we get tomorrow. Overall, I feel like it’s a golf course you have to be very patient.
“There are a lot of bad bounces out there. Hit what I thought was the best drive of the day down 18 and got screwed with the lie in the rough. It’s one of those golf courses and you just try and stay patient and try and give yourself as many chances as possible.”
With one round remaining, there is still plenty of golf to be played as the Europeans look to try and climb further up the leaderboard.
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