Chiara Noja was in a nostalgic mood on day three at the Aramco Saudi Ladies International presented by Public Investment Fund as she carded a magnificent 65 (-7) to surge up the leaderboard.
Returning to Royal Greens Golf & Country Club four months after winning the Aramco Team Series – Jeddah, the 16-year-old went bogey free on Saturday as she carded seven birdies to move to 10-under par.
“It’s definitely been nostalgic coming back,” Noja said. “The course is playing a little bit differently this year. They’ve grown out the rough but the fairways are in a really good condition. It’s like a little carpet out there.
“It’s a golf course that suits me really nicely and I’ve been able to produce some really good golf here across the week.”
Rekindling the form which saw her claim her maiden Ladies European Tour (LET) title, Noja rolled in five birdies on the front nine before adding two more on 12 and 18 to close out the second-lowest round of the day.
“My putter worked really well today.” she continued. “I just try to keep myself in contention as best as I could. I didn’t play as good as the other girls yesterday, so today I tried to roll in putts and give myself as good an opportunity as I could and avoid bogeys.”
Noja sits eight shots behind leader Lilia Vu heading into Sunday, where she’ll continue to stay level-headed despite her historic victory here in November.
She added: “One of the main things I’ve tried to do coming into this week is to not put too much pressure on myself, both score-wise and attitude-wise. Obviously, I had a good week here in November, but I didn’t want to try and force anything.”
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