After Bronze in Rio and Silver in Tokyo, there’s only one medal missing from Lydia Ko’s Olympic collection and she’s in pole position to complete the set after closing the three-shot gap to Switzerland’s Morgan Metraux.
The two-time major winner appeared set to hold the outright lead with one day to play until surprise act and playing partner Metraux produced an eagle at the par-five 18th to join her at nine-under after 54 holes.
Ko mixed three birdies with a lone bogey at the seventh to turn in two-under. She then cancelled out a birdie at the 10th with a bogey at the 12th, before birdieing the 17th to take a two-shot lead to the last.
It was then that Metraux, who had been in the shadows of others for most of Friday, produced her best moment of the round as she backed up an excellent approach at the final hole with an equally impressive 20-foot putt for eagle to record a one-under 71.
Were Ko to secure victory, she would secure her place in the World Golf Hall of Fame, and while it’s not something that she’s focusing on, it can’t be helped.
“I’d like to do it [finally get into the Hall of Fame],” she said after the second day, “because then everyone would stop asking me about it.”
While it was not as eye-catching as Thursday’s six-under 66, in which she played the front nine in 28 blows, world No. 137 Metraux showed her resolve after her round threatened to unravel with three bogeys in a four-hole stretch from holes 10-13.
“It was fun. It was a lot of fun,” said Metraux. “I was a lot more calm and serene than I thought I was going to be. It was really helping playing with girls I knew and are super nice, too. Yeah, I had a lot of fun, and things just didn’t quite drop for most of the round for me. But I stayed really patient and it paid off on last hole.”
Two shots adrift sit their nearest challengers in Rose Zhang of USA and Japan’s Miyu Yamashita, another Olympic debutant.
Zhang made eagles at the 14th and 18th in her 67 that also included a double bogey at the par-4 15th, while Yamashita – two years her senior at 23 – posted a 4-under 68.
The Japanese was one of just two bogey-free rounds on Friday, with the other going to Canada’s Brooke Henderson as she hit a 5-under 67 to leave herself at 2 under.
Defending gold medalist Nelly Korda sits in a four-way tie at 7 under after a third-round 70, along with France’s Celine Boutier and China’s Xiyu Lin and Ruoning Yin.
Australia’s Hannah Green carded the best round of the day with a 6-under 66 that featured seven birdies and a stunning 153-yard, hole-out eagle at the par-4 17th to climb into a tie for 11th.
Stephanie Meadow has improved with each round, going 78, 74 in round one and two and she broke even with the course in round three, recovering from two early bogeys on the front side to cover the back in -2, trading two bogeys with four birdies, including two in her final three holes.
A round in red figures on Saturday to continue the upward trend will see her leave Paris with her head held high, but barring something in the low-60s, Leona Maguire will be desperate to forget her four days at Le Golf National as, having matched Meadow’s opening 78, she’s gone the other way and her third-round 83 saw her go quad-triple on 15 and 16. Only Finland’s Noora Komulainen keeps her from the foot of the leaderboard.