Leona Maguire’s World Invitational bid falls flat after third round collapse as Amanda Doherty holds onto lead

Hopes were high that Leona Maguire could pick up her second LPGA Tour win in front of a home crowd at the ISPS HANDA World Invitational, but those hopes were dashed in a disastrous third round at Galgorm Castle for the Cavan woman.

aguire had entered the day three shots off leader Amanda Doherty and quickly erased that gap to one with birdies at the par-fives first and third, but she cratered after that, back-to-back bogeys at the fifth and sixth halting her charge before a calamitous three-putt double-bogey at the par-four sixth ended her challenge.

Two more bogeys on her back nine, along with one more birdie, meant she finished the day with a three-over 76 – the women’s par at Galgorm is 73 – to drop back to five-under-par, seven shots off leader Doherty, who is looking to complete a wire-to-wire win.

The American will assume the very loose title of home favourite courtesy of the fact that she does have Irish heritage on her father’s side of the family, and she maintained the one-shot lead she has held after every round this week with a one-under 72 in round three to reach 12-under.

However, she has an experienced figure chasing her down in the form of former Open champion Georgia Hall, who is well positioned just one shot behind at 11-under after a three-under 68, which was matched by playing partner Peiyun Chien, who is also just a stroke back heading into the final day.

But Doherty, an LPGA rookie who is ranked 211th in the world and does not have a professional win to her name, is handling the pressure well and ensured she would enter the final round with the lead after birdieing the par-five 18th to separate her from the pack.

“I’m excited. I’m a little bit nervous though, I would be lying if I wasn’t. To me the nerves just mean that I care and that I’m excited, and it’s just kind of good energy going into tomorrow,” she smiled.

“I feel like overall it was a good day. Got off to a little bit of a rough start and I hit a few crazy shots today, so I managed to kind of come back from those and try and stay patient, have a decent round.”

Sweden’s Maja Stark, the Race to Costa del Sol leader on the Ladies European Tour, also moved into contention on moving day as she carded a four-under 69 to move into fourth at 10-under-par, where she is joined by America’s Allisen Corpuz and Denmark’s Emily Kristine Pedersen.