Rose Zhang leads Americas Open as Leona Maguire drops back

Rose Zhang fired a six-under-par 66 on Saturday to move to the head of the leaderboard after three rounds at the Mizuho Americas Open, but Leona Maguire now finds herself ten shots adrift of the leader.

Maguire carded a 74 in a round that included a double bogey on 17. Before that she had picked up shots on 13 and 16, this after bogeys on seven and ten. The Cavan golfer is now one under ahead of the final round.

Stephanie Meadow also carded a 74 to see her stand at three over.

Zhang turned in a bogey-free round while picking up six birdies to climb three spots on the leaderboard. She now sits at 11-under 205, two strokes ahead of Thailand's Atthaya Thitikul, India's Aditi Ashok and Cheyenne Knight, who area ll tied for second.

FULL LEADERBOARD

At 20 years old, Zhang is playing in her first event on the LPGA Tour. Shestarred at Stanford, where she was a two-time NCAA champion and was named Pac-12 Golfer of the Year in 2022.

Thitikul and Ashok both recorded third-round 68s, while Knight notched a 70. . Australian Minjee Lee (72) is in sole possession of fifth. South Koreans HaeRan Ryu (66) and Eun-Hee Ji (70) and Jennifer Kupcho (69) are tied for sixth.

Stephanie Kyriacou, whose 65 marked the low round of the day to vault 40 spots, is in a three-way tie for ninth with Sei Young Kim and world No 1 JinYoung Ko, both of whom are from South Korea.

Additional reporting: Reuters