Olivia Mehaffey stormed up the leaderboard in the European Ladies Amateur Championship in Sweden on Friday with a stunning third round display.
The Royal County Down star, holder of both the Welsh and Irish Open stroke-play titles, carded a fine four under par 68 over the Hooks course to move to five under overall giving her a share of fourth place.
She goes into the fourth and final round today some seven strokes behind Leslie Cloots,the leader from Belgium and more crucially three adrift of another Belgian Diane Baillieux who occupies the last medal spot.
Mehaffey who had recorded scores of 70 and 73 on the previous two days started well with birdies on two of the first three holes and reached the turn in three under par 33 with a birdie also on the short sixth.
On the homeward stretch the teenager was a little more up and down with three birdies,two bogeys and four pars.
She was the only Irish player to shine although Clandeboye’s Jessica Ross did manage to qualify for the final 18 holes by the skin of her teeth.
Ross posted a five over par 77 yesterday for a 54-hole total of 222 to make it on the cut-off point. She dropped three strokes in the final two holes but still survived.
Chloe Ryan of Castleroy ended with a score two strokes too many for her to stay in the competition after a 75 yesterday and former winner Lisa Maguire was extremely disappointing finishing the first three rounds on 233 – 17 over par – to crash out.
