Jutanugarn leads by two after brilliant third round 66

Thailand’s Ariya Jutanugarn shot a marvellous 3rd round 66 to take a 2-shot lead into the final round of the Ricoh Women’s British Open at Woburn.

The 20-year-old from Bangkok started quickly with birdies at the 2nd, 3rd and 5th holes to move into the lead as Lee in the final group bogeyed the 3rd. Jutanugarn built on her good start with further birdies at the 8th, 10th and 14th holes without dropping any shots. A solid par at the final hole helped her post 66 and go into Sunday’s final round full of confidence.

Her playing partner Catriona Matthew also started very well with early birdies to get to within one shot of Jutanugarn after 6 holes. The Scot however, failed to make any more birdies and two dropped shots on the back-nine meant Matthew shot a round of 71. She is still very much in contention and will be in the penultimate group tomorrow afternoon and six shots off the pace. Her playing partner will be Mo Martin, who carded a round of 69 to finish on 11-under-par. The 2014 Open champion will be hoping to add another Major to her locker and at just five shots back, she will be confident that if she gets off to a quick start the pressure may get to Jutanugarn and Lee in the group behind.

Second round leader Mirim Lee is only two shots back though after an impressive round of 69. Lee started badly with a bogey at the 3rd hole, but quickly made up for her mistake with four birdies in eight holes around the turn. Steady pars coming home means Lee will tee it up with Jutanugarn in the final group tomorrow.

Further down the leaderboard local favourite Charley Hull made the worst start possible with a triple-bogey seven at the first hole. From there, the English superstar never really recovered and both of her birdies were cancelled out by two bogeys. She finished on 2-under-par after a disappointing round of 75 and unfortunately will not be the British Open champion this year.

Elsewhere on the course world number four Lexi Thompson is eight shots back of the lead on 8-under-par after a third round of 69. She will need something special and hope for mistakes from the leaders tomorrow if she stands any chance of becoming the Open champion tomorrow evening.