Lauren Coughlin finds herself on top of the leaderboard at the ISPS HANDA Women’s Scottish Open at Dundonald Links. The American put together her second-straight bogey-free round, this time adding six birdies to the card to tie the lowest round of the week at 6-under. While she hit all 18 greens in regulation, just the second player to do so this week, Coughlin credited her putting as the reason why she’s been able to keep her hot streak going.
“Yeah, I think a lot of it is putting. I started to get some confidence in the (spring) Asian Swing, and since then I’ve been able to keep it going. I’m starting to hit the ball extremely well, and yeah, I’m just starting to feel really good about my game and myself and trying to keep it going.”
Overnight leader Megan Khang also stayed bogey-free but came up one stroke shy of tying the lead heading into Sunday’s final round. She turned in an even-par front nine still with closing distance of the leaders. On the back, she turned her game up a notch, putting together three birdies to position herself in contention to capture her second-career win.
“Yeah, definitely,” Khang said about if it’s tough to stay patient out on the course in these conditions. “I mean, it’s so hard to say this is one of the nicer days… this is by far the best thing of the week. At least with my wave. So, it was a little bit different today. Obviously, the wind was still a big factor. But it was just nice to be out there, and out there, I was joking with Charley and Minjee, they were in the opposite wave, I was like, “Oh, this is nice today.” They just looked at me kind of funny. Overall, still having fun out there.”
A pair of Team Europe Solheim Cup hopefuls sit tied for third. Olympic silver medalist Esther Henseleit made a lot of noise on moving day, taking the solo-lead at one point thanks to five birdies and an eagle on the Aon Risk Reward Challenge hole, the par-5 No. 14. A bogey on No. 16 was her lone blemish of the round. England’s Charley Hull turned in a relatively clean scorecard with one bogey on the front and four birdies to carry momentum into Sunday.
Round one and two’s leader, Minjee Lee ended her round even-par. The Aussie held a two-stroke lead over the field at one point on the front before recording three bogeys and a birdie on the back-nine to drop her into solo-fifth.
Defending champion Céline Boutier found some positive ground recording her first under-par round of the week going 1-under, 71.
Related: Jesper Svensson takes 54-hole lead
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