Stephanie Meadow climbed into the top-20 at the AIG Women's Open following an impressive third round at Walton's Heath but compatriot Leona Maguire has fallen out of the reckoning.
Beginning at one-over par, the Antrim competitor went in the wrong direction early, with two bogeys in her opening four holes. However, she recovered with a birdie on the long sixth hole, with three more on the inward nine to jump to one-under par overall and tied-16th.
Overnight leader Ally Ewing struggled to a round of three-over-par to fall back into the pack. The 30-year old American held a substantial five-stroke lead heading into today's play but has been overtaken by fantastic rounds from England's Charley Hull (68) and American Lilian Vu (67) who now both lead on nine-under-par. Ewing is two shots back.
"Obviously it was so windy today but I dug deep," Hull said. "I struck the ball pretty well. I was pretty confident and felt good out there and I'm pretty proud of myself, so can't wait to just chill tonight. It would be unbelievable to win. It would be absolutely unbelievable, to do what Georgia (Hall) did in 2018.
"To do that again would be unreal. But one step at a time and just go out there and have fun. It is good to have the home fans, so many crowds, and it's nice to have that home support."
Vu said of her own spectacular score: "I think today was really for me in terms of confidence. It's been since the Chevron that I actually felt pretty decent about my game and where it's at.
"So tomorrow I'm just going to do the same thing I did today, focusing on tee shots and giving myself a good opportunity for birdies. If I just do that tomorrow and not think too much about the wind."
World No2 Nelly Korda is on four under after a fine 69.
Meanwhile, the door was firmly shut on Leona Maguire's slim hopes of mounting a challenge over the weekend with a disappointing 74 on Saturday.
Starting the weekend 10 strokes adrift on even par, Maguire briefly got back into red numbers with successive birdies on 10 and 11 but dropped three strokes over the closing stretch to fall back to two over par and tied-47th by Saturday afternoon.
