Eighteen holes remain in the Epson Tour Championship and three people sit atop the leaderboard. Milagros Chaves, Jaravee Boonchant and Hyo Joon Jang finished 54-holes at 17-under par, just one stroke ahead of the rest of the field.
Chaves fired an impressive, bogey-free 10-under par round that included six consecutive birdies. She knew she had to go low for a chance in the weekend and was fortunately able to pull it off. Her 7-under second round set a short-lived personal best. She’s ready to attack the final round with a good mindset.
“I'm just going to try to do my best again,” said Chaves. “Yesterday I broke my record, and today I broke it again, so hopefully tomorrow I can do something crazy again and do better.”
Boonchant also went bogey-free, carding two birdies and a lone eagle. The Thai signed for a 4-under third round and will to stick to her gameplan for the final round, which has worked out well to her surprise.
“I definitely exceed my expectations,” said Boonchant. “As I said yesterday, my goal was to make the cut and play weekend golf. Now that I'm up there, I'm just very grateful for where I am and grateful for my caddie for keeping me awake. I’ll just try to enjoy tomorrow as much as possible, and hopefully I get a good result.”
Jang signed a colorful 5-under par scorecard, carding five birdies, one eagle and a double bogey on the round – her only blemish of the day. The rookie said her double bogey on the back nine got to her head a little, but her caddie helped pull her back to a positive mindset.
“As soon as I made a double bogey, I could feel something mentally breaking,” said Jang. “I'm human, I guess. But I was trying to just forget about it. At least I didn't make that tomorrow. I had more opportunities, so I was just forgetting about it and trying to be calm again.”
One stroke behind the leading trio was Bailey Tardy in solo second place. Tardy signed for a bogey-free, 4-under round and carded three of her four birdies on the front nine. The Georgia native looks to improve her scorecard down the stretch in tomorrow’s final round.
“I missed a couple coming in,” said Tardy. “I hit it in the water on 18, so par was kind of bittersweet. But it was good recovery, and I’m happy with the way I played. I hit it really solid today and am just looking forward to tomorrow.”
Five players round out the top five, also in contention at 15-under. Dorsey Addicks, Riley Rennell, Karen Chung, Sophie Hausmann and Linnea Ström sit just one stroke behind Tardy and two strokes behind Chaves, Boonchant and Jang. A total of 28 players head into the final round at 10-under par or better, including 2022 champions Maria Torres (-12), Ssu-Chia Cheng (-12), Dottie Ardina (-12), Yan Liu (-12), Kiira Riihijarvi (-14), Daniela Iacobelli (-14), and Linnea Ström (-15).
QUICK QUOTES
Dorsey Addicks (-15, T5) on a 9-under round with an eagle and bogey:
“I'm kind of speechless, honestly. I've worked really hard this year, but the scores and the results haven't been there. So to go out on moving day and move way up the leaderboard and give myself a chance tomorrow to win it is huge.”
Riley Rennell (-15, T5) on an 8-under round:
“That was pretty surreal, actually. I putted really great all day, and I was going to be a little bit bummed if I walked away with 6-under for the day, just because I bogeyed 16. I hit a pretty good shot but hit the slope and kicked dead left and didn't get it up and down. I was at 6 [under] for a little bit, but I eagled the last hole. I hit my drive a little bit right but hit a good second shot, and I was just in front of the green. I chipped it, and it was rolling just perfect.”
Karen Chung (-15, T5) on a stretch of three birdies and one eagle:
“That honestly came out of the blue, but I was hitting it really well, also making putts. That eagle was really nice to see because I hit it in there to about 15 feet, and then it just kind of rolled in perfectly. Then the next hole, the par 3, I hit it to about 12 feet and rolled in. It was a nice stretch.”
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