Stephanie Meadow into top-20 but Leona Maguire fades at Women's Open

Stephanie Meadow climbed into the top-20 at the AIG Women's Open following an impressive third round at Walton's Heath but compatriot Leona Maguire has fallen further out of the reckoning.

Beginning at one-over par, the Antrim competitor went in the wrong direction early, with two bogeys in her opening four holes. However, she recovered with a birdie on the long sixth hole, with three more on the inward nine to jump to one-under par overall and tied-16th.

Meadow trails the overnight leader Ally Ewing by seven strokes early in the latter's third round. The 30-year old American held a substantial five stroke lead overnight but has stumbled early on with two early bogeys on Saturday and she now leads by three from a quartet of players on five-under which includes England's Charley Hull.

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World no. 2 Nelly Korda is one stroke further back on four under after a fine 69 on Saturday.

Meanwhile, the door was firmly shut on Leona Maguire's slim hopes of mounting a challenge over the weekend with a disappointing 74 on Saturday.

Starting the weekend 10 strokes adrift on even par, Maguire briefly got back into red numbers with successive birdies on 10 and 11 but dropped three strokes over the closing stretch to fall back to two over par and tied-47th by Saturday afternoon.