Chiara Tamburlini fired a round of 68 (-4) to lead the Wistron Ladies Open – Taiwan by four strokes at Sunrise Golf and Country Club.
The Swiss star held the halfway lead and had a solid start with pars on her first five holes before making her first birdie of the day on the sixth.
A dropped shot on the eighth saw the 24-year-old go back to level for the day but she then made a birdie on the ninth.
On the back nine, Tamburlini rolled in birdies on 13, 15 and 16 and after a wayward tee shot on the last, she saved a great par to sit at the top of the leaderboard on nine-under-par.
“I seemed to be liking the first couple of holes a bit better now,” said the two-time LET winner. “I feel like I learned a lot from yesterday, I feel like it was quite similar conditions and very windy again.
“I definitely improved my ball-striking a lot from yesterday. I stayed quite calm and patient because after yesterday, I knew the scores were going to be not so low again. It was a good learning yesterday for sure.
“I had a lot of good chances. I missed a couple; I missed a par putt on eight that I could’ve sworn was going to go in. It really required some patience there because I felt like it was supposed to be a better score than it was. I kept telling myself I’m hitting good putts; they’re going to start dropping.
“I had a really ugly lip-out on hole 12, but I stayed really calm and came right back. I made one on 13, and I made a big lip-in on 15, you need to talk about those too as they balance each other out.
“With 18, I think my head switched off before I hit that tee shot because it seems such a big fairway and then all of a sudden, I see my ball come off the clubface and go no that’s not good. I got lucky being able to get a free drop and save par from such a tough position.”
With a four-shot lead heading into the final day, Tamburlini will be aiming to clinch a third LET title in her rookie season on Tour.
She continued: “I feel very positive. I’m really excited, this is why we practice, and this is what it’s all for to be in contention and be up there on the leaderboard. I saw Emma [Spitz] and Nicole [Garcia] on the leaderboard.
“I’m really good friends with Emma and love Nicole so I think we’re going to have a blast. That makes it even better! Tomorrow will bring what it brings, I’m going to keep pushing and go as low as I can and we will see how we end up at the end of the day.”
South Africa’s Nicole Garcia and Austria’s Emma Spitz sit in a share of second place on five-under-par at the 54-hole mark.
Garcia only had one dropped shot on her scorecard on day three with five birdies and one bogey sealing a round of 68 (-4).
“It was good,” said the South African. “Myself and Doug were talking about it earlier that whenever it’s pumping wind, we tend to do well. I suppose having that mindset is just nice. I don’t know if it makes me focus more! It was nice, the pins weren’t as tough so you could go for a few more.
“It’s probably the best I have hit the ball especially off the tee in a year and a half, so that helps. Getting the ball in play is a lot easier than having the odd one off the planet, and I think that helps with the consistency.
“I went to go and see Andy Paisley for my putting just after the Scottish because I had been struggling with that and it’s improving. I don’t think I missed too many fairways today and if I did, it was just a metre off the fairway so still in play.”
It was a bogey-free day for Spitz as she made an eagle on the sixth hole as well as birdies on the ninth and 11th holes to also be in a tie for second place.
“It was a windy day again, but I think we did a good job at calculating the wind,” said the Austrian, who lost in a playoff earlier this season. “I think it’s sometimes tough on this course. It feels like it’s from a completely different side than it actually is.
“I think we’ve been good at figuring out where it’s coming from. It was nice to get the eagle on the par-five, that definitely helped and then I got a bit unlucky on the back nine, I had some good looks that didn’t want to go in. Definitely a good round, I’m looking forward to tomorrow.
“I hit a really good drive, I had 177 to the front edge and 188 to the pin and the wind was a bit off the left. I hit a 3-wood and my plan was to start it at the pin and have the wind bring it back to the middle of the green.
“I started it two metres left of the pin and it stayed there. I think it must have landed just on the fringe because it stopped pretty soon and I had four feet for eagle.
“You need to stick with it I think, I didn’t start that well. I wasn’t hitting it perfect, but I kept making my pars and then I got it going and I think that’s going to be important for tomorrow. If you don’t start perfect, just keep going and then use the opportunities that you get.”
Three players are in a tie for fourth place with France’s Nastasia Nadaud, Thailand’s Chonlada Chayanun and home star Yu-Sang Hou all on four-under-par.
It was a good day for Nadaud as she rolled in five birdies and one bogey for her round of 68 (-4) to move up the leaderboard.
“Yesterday, I struggled a bit more with the wind, it was stronger than today and the first day,” said the Frenchwoman. “I managed to hit fairways and greens which really helped. I gave myself a couple of opportunities to make birdies, I made two of the par-fives in two, so I was pretty happy with my day today.
“I chipped better than yesterday. I missed more greens yesterday, so I was chipping around the greens. Today I missed a couple of greens too, but I managed to make up-and-down, so I think that helped as well. I’m happy with that.”
Li-Nang Wang sits in outright seventh place on three-under-par with six players one shot further back in a share of eighth place.
Round four will begin at 6.45 am (local time) with the leading group teeing off at 10.40 am at Sunrise Golf and Country Club.
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