Australian Stephanie Kyriacou edged a stroke ahead of Japan’s Ayaka Furue and Lauren Coughlin of the United States with a birdie on the final hole in the third round of the Amundi Evian Championship.
The 23-year-old from Coogee, Sydney, fired a 67 in hot and sunny conditions at Evian Resort Golf Club for a 54-hole total of 14-under-par.
The Rolex Rankings No.100 played 19-and-a-half holes on Saturday, after the second round was suspended overnight due to thunderstorms. She completed her second round at 8am before taking a nap and then starting her third round five hours later.
The two-time Ladies European Tour winner began her third round two strokes behind Furue and the Japanese player had built a three-stroke lead after eight holes, but Kyriacou rallied on the back nine and the pair duelled for the lead, until Coughlin set the clubhouse target at 13-under with an eagle on 18 – her second of the day after another on hole nine.
Kyriacou went out in 34 after making a bogey on the first, followed by three consecutive birdies and another dropped shot on the sixth, but hit back-to-back birdies on the 10th and 11th, where there was a two-shot swing as Furue made her first bogey of the tournament.
Furue birdied the 12th to win back her advantage, but then found the rough and made her second bogey on 13. Kyriacou birdied the long 15th but then three-putted the short 16th.
She made a tricky downhill birdie putt from seven feet on the last to take the outright lead and said afterwards: “The more you play this course, the more the figure out the tips and tricks. Like, you’re never going to get a flat lie, using the slopes on the green, sticking to one shot at a time.
“I’m very excited to sleep. I can say that. Yeah, it was a great day. Definitely a long day, but lots of good things happened. Good momentum into tomorrow, so, yeah, after a good sleep I think I’ll be ready.
“Same as the last three days: One shot at a time. Try not to get ahead of myself. Obviously I know I’m in the lead, so that’s nice. Yeah, being in contention on Sunday is not something — I don’t think I’ve been in contention in a major before, so it’s exciting.
“I mean, obviously I want to win; so do the other girls. But I think for myself personally, when I like want something too much I kind of start to like try and force things, so I’m probably going to stay back a bit from that. You know, that seems to work for me. I’m very chatty on the course and stuff, so just staying like how I play my best and not trying to like do things just because of the situation I’m in.”
Second round leader Furue, who is just one shot off the lead, was not satisfied with her third round 70. She said: “My shots were not that good today, but I had some huge par saves so that was kind of good for me. Steph made a lot of birdies today, and otherwise I couldn’t get any like birdie chances today. So that was a little bit frustrating.”
Coughlin, also tied for second on 13-under-par, was pleased with her 65.
She said: “I’ve just been hitting my irons and driver extremely well, and finally rolling in some putts, too. It was a great round. Started off a little shaky hitting it in the right bunker on the first, but other than that, I feel like I settled in quite quickly.
“This is my fifth year playing and I’ve never made the cut up until this point. Uneven lies have been giving me an issue for a really long time. I think Lancaster really exposed it. So, I’ve finally just been putting in some work and going and practicing and figuring them out, and I think I’m seeing all that work this week.
“I think that’s the big thing, is just being able to trust you’re going to hit the ball where you need to hit it. You have to be so precise. It’s helped a lot given how soft the greens have been, but overall it’s been just really good execution.”
Pajaree Anannarukarn of Thailand is three strokes further back in fourth place on 10-under-par. Ally Ewing of the United States had the round of the day – a seven-under-par 64 – and shares fifth with Hye-Jin Choi and Patty Tavatanakit.
Four further players, Chanatee Wannasaen, Narin An, Ingrid Lindblad and Yu Jin Sung, share eighth place on eight-under-par. The final round gets under way with a two-tee start from 8.35am on Sunday and the leaders will tee off at 10.36am local time.
