Leona Maguire cruised into the quarter-finals of the T-Mobile Matchplay Championship as first seed after finishing top of the leaderboard after three rounds in Las Vegas.
Maguire posted her second successive 69 to finish six-under, three strokes clear of the field, and heads into the knockout phase of the tournament as No. 1 seed.
"Today was a big mental win for me," Maguire said. "I think going out we knew the conditions were going to be tough. It was going to be windy, it was going to be swirling, the greens were going to get firm in the afternoon."
At 3.40pm Irish time, she will face eighth seed, Thailand's Moriya Jutanugarn, who triumphed in a three-way playoff among a trio of players who finished the third round on +2.
In the other three games, Rose Zhang faces off against Sei Young Kim, Minami Katsu plays Narin An, while World No. 1 Nelly Korda - who placed sixth in the standings - plays Angel Yin, who was tied-second after Friday.
Korda is attempting to be the first LPGA player to win four straight starts since Lorena Ochoa in 2008, and Cavan's Maguire was full of praise for the American.
"Nelly is the best player in the world right now," Maguire said. "She's playing great golf, so no surprise she's in the match play. The conditions on the golf course brings out the best in everybody, and it's no surprise to see some of the best players in the world up near the top of the leaderboard.
"I'm sure Nelly is going to be a tough match for whoever she plays. She's been on quite a roll and very impressive to watch."
Saturday morning will begin the single-elimination match-play bracket, with the semi-finals taking place on Saturday afternoon and the championship match contested on Sunday.
Maguire enters the knockout bracket in fine form, having recorded four birdies with just one dropped stroke en route to a 69 on Friday, an otherwise tricky day for scoring.
Stephanie Meadow's chances of squeezing into the top-eight were ruined with three bogeys in the closing four holes as she fell to six-over par and tied-25th.
For a three shot lead 🤩@leona_maguire is 5-under and on top with just one more to play 💯 pic.twitter.com/2aCWHZRTDV
— LPGA (@LPGA) April 5, 2024
Over on the Ladies European Tour, the Australian Classic has been badly hit with inclement weather, and has been reduced to a 36-hole event.
There's a three-way tie for the lead on six-under between hometown favourite Jess Whiting, Denmark's Nicole Broch Estrup and Taiwan's Pei-Ying Tsai.
Lauren Walsh was the better performing of the Irish duo, the Dubliner carding a one-over par 73 but it was a day to forget for Olivia Mehaffey, who struggled to a nine-over par round of 81 to lie near the foot of the field.
Additional reporting: Reuters
