{"id":19101,"date":"2023-11-25T21:19:12","date_gmt":"2023-11-25T19:19:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ladiesingolf.com\/?p=19101"},"modified":"2023-11-25T21:19:12","modified_gmt":"2023-11-25T19:19:12","slug":"kirsten-rudgeley-maintains-advantage-in-spain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ladiesingolf.com\/en\/kirsten-rudgeley-maintains-advantage-in-spain\/","title":{"rendered":"Kirsten Rudgeley maintains advantage in Spain"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kirsten Rudgeley continued her fine form in Spain producing a round of 68 (-4) on day three of the Andaluc\u00eda Costa del Sol Open de Espa\u00f1a.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Australian, who held a two-shot lead overnight, had another day without a blemish on her scorecard at Real Club de Golf Las Brisas.<\/p>\n

After making her first birdie on the third, the rookie rolled in three more on the ninth, 10th<\/sup> and 12th<\/sup>holes to sit at the top of the leaderboard<\/a> on 13-under-par.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m playing pretty good golf, I\u2019m happy with everything,\u201d said Rudgeley, who has only made one bogey so far this week. \u201cIt\u2019s in the right place and I\u2019m just going to play tomorrow and take it all in. As I\u2019m a rookie, it\u2019s all experience to me.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just go out there and enjoy it and play golf. I have got my uncle on the bag so it\u2019s nice to chat completely about something else. It takes my mind off it. All I can do is play my best, hole some putts and see what happens.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy uncle, that\u2019s why he is here this week, he lives not far from here and I do like Spain. It\u2019s good fun, it reminds me of home. It\u2019s nice to have family over here, the two little cousins and I don\u2019t have to travel 17 hours back to Perth to go home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two players are in a tie for second place with Dutch star Anne Van Dam and India\u2019s Aditi Ashok both on 11-under-par at the 54-hole mark.<\/p>\n

Five-time LET winner Van Dam carded a bogey-free 65 (-7) to climb up the leaderboard with four birdies on her front nine and three on her back nine.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was one of those days where I got off to a really good start with a birdie and never looked back,\u201d said the Solheim Cup winner. \u201cI just went out there and painted the town red.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really feel like my mental part is becoming the strongest part of my game. If I look at today, I didn\u2019t play flawlessly out there. I definitely had some missed shots but I\u2019m getting very good at staying very calm and trusting myself that I can make a birdie from everywhere which showed today as well. I have been really enjoying working on the mental side. I never thought it would get there but it\u2019s showing off this year with a lot of good results.\u201d<\/p>\n

Van Dam enjoys playing in this part of Europe having won the Andaluc\u00eda Costa del Sol Open de Espa\u00f1a title in 2018 and 2019.<\/p>\n

She added: \u201cI still don\u2019t know what it is about Spain! It\u2019s probably the weather. It\u2019s always just a pleasure to be here. The people are relaxed, obviously coming here at the end of the year and finishing up strong. There are a lot of Dutch people out here, they were loud today which was nice. It was fun to play for and I\u2019m very excited for tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Ashok had a phenomenal start to her round with five birdies on her front in Spain and she added another on hole 10.<\/p>\n

The two-time Olympian ran into some trouble on 13 where she made a double bogey but soon made a birdie on 15 before another bogey on 17 for her round of 68 (-4).<\/p>\n

\u201cI was trying to make a move today; I think the front nine was good,\u201d said Ashok, who won the LET\u2019s season-opener in Kenya. \u201cI gave myself a lot of birdie chances.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel I missed a couple because I was looking at birdie on nearly every hole, but back nine it kind of slowed down and killed my momentum. I tried to force a couple of birdies, I three-putted on 17 but four-under is still a good round and hopefully, I can try and do better tomorrow.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be the perfect win sandwich! I\u2019m not thinking too much about that, it\u2019s a course where if you\u2019re playing well, you\u2019re looking at birdie on every hole but if you hit one bad shot then you might drop one or two shots.\u201d<\/p>\n

Three players are in a share of fourth place with Belgium\u2019s Manon De Roey, France\u2019s Celine Boutier and Spain\u2019s Ana Pel\u00e1ez Trivino<\/a> all on nine-under-par.<\/p>\n

LET winner De Roey produced a round of 67 (-5) to move herself up the leaderboard with seven birdies and two bogeys on her scorecard.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was definitely a good day, it was moving day today! I definitely moved up the leaderboard which was the plan,\u201d said the Belgian.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just happy to be out here and playing my game again. I lost it a little bit this year in the middle of the year on the LPGA, I\u2019m back with some confidence so I\u2019m excited to play tomorrow again.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like this course suits me, I played with Anne Van Dam and Carlota [Ciganda], so I had to step up my game. We all played pretty well. I\u2019m super excited for tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Major champion and world number three Boutier carded a round of 68 (-4) while Pel\u00e1ez Trivino signed for a round of 70 (-2).<\/p>\n

England\u2019s Gabriella Cowley, Spanish amateur Andrea Revuelta and 2022 Race to Costa del Sol champion Linn Grant are all T7 on eight-under after the first three days.<\/p>\n

One shot further back is Norway\u2019s Madelene Stavnar and France\u2019s Anne-Lise Caudal, who are both tied for 10th<\/sup> place.<\/p>\n

Round of the day went to Finland\u2019s Sanna Nuutinen who fired a 64 (-8) to equal the course record set by Seve Ballesteros at the 1987 Open de Espa\u00f1a.<\/p>\n

Based on the current positions of the\u00a0Race to Costa del Sol\u00a0contenders after the third round, Thailand\u2019s\u00a0Trichat Cheenglab\u00a0is still in pole position and is projected to stay at the top of the rankings.<\/p>\n

The final round begins at 9 am (local time) with the leaders teeing off at 11.01 am (local time) in Spain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kirsten Rudgeley continued her fine form in Spain producing a round of 68 (-4) on day three of the Andaluc\u00eda Costa del Sol Open de Espa\u00f1a. The Australian, who held a two-shot lead overnight, had another day without a blemish on her scorecard at Real Club de Golf Las Brisas. After making her first birdie<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":19102,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[]},"categories":[865,45,893,864,881],"tags":[1638,918,989,3654],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t