Leona Maguire regained much of the ground lost on Friday with a third round 69 at the Blue Bay LPGA in China, leaving her on the edge of the top-10 and seven back from the lead heading into Sunday.
Maguire had laboured to a second round 73 which pushed her outside the top-20 but bounced back strongly on Saturday, matching her three-under par opening round.
As on the first day, she finished her round strongly, with birdies on the 14th, 15th and 17th.
It had been an uneven round prior to that, a trio of birdies between the seventh and ninth being cancelled out by bogeys on six, 10 and 12.
Maguire, who last won on the LPGA Tour at the 2023 Meijer Classic, is seven strokes back from the leader Mi Hyang Lee. The Korean's colourful card contained just one par on the front nine and concluded with a birdie for a one-under 71, taking her to 12-under overall, three strokes clear of the field.
Her closest challengers are her compatriot Hye-Jin Choi and China's Yu Liu, both on nine-under. Maguire is currently in tied-11th.
In the Australian Women's Classic on the Ladies European Tour, Aine Donegan struggled to a two-over par 74 to fall back to one-under par overall, 11 strokes back from the leader, home favourite Kelsey Bennett.
Donegan fell back to even par with three successive bogeys on the front nine, though recovered somewhat with birdies on the 10th and 17th with another dropped stroke at 16.
Two Aussies are vying for the title, with Bennett leading by a stroke from compatriot Caley McGinty and England's Meghan MacLaren.
Ireland's Anna Foster had missed the cut with rounds of 74 and 75.
