Davies suffers a setback

Laura Davies has seen her hopes of claiming a hat-trick of UNIQA Ladies Golf Open titles undermined by two forgettable holes.
Laura Davies saw her hopes of claiming a hat-trick of UNIQA Ladies Golf Open titles undermined on Satyurday by two forgettable holes during the third round at Wiener Neustadt in Austria today.
The 45-year-old Englishwoman had begun the day as joint leader, but a triple-bogey seven at the 13th which followed a similarly disastrous double bogey at the par-four fifth saw her card a 74 to finish the day at six under.
That leaves Davies two shots shy of a co-leaders Hazel Kavanagh, Linda Wessberg and Marjet van der Graaff heading into the final round, although it could have been worse for Davies had she not collected three birdies along the way.
“I hit two bad shots and had a double and a triple. You can’t really recover from that,” Davies said.
“The double … I hit a really poor tee shot and went for a shot that didn’t come off. I made a double there but the triple on 13; I hit a really good tee shot and had some mud on the ball.
“I hit a nine iron but the mud skewed it off to the right and it went in the water. I tried to get it out a couple of times so it ended a triple.”
She added: “I’m still in with a chance. That takes a bit of pressure off actually. If I was leading and trying to get three on the trot it’s a bit more pressure. Now I’m playing catch-up and it’s all to play for.”
Kavanagh put herself in contention to be the first Irish player to win on the LET after firing a career-low five-under 67.
“I hit 17 greens and putted great,” the 37-year-old Dubliner said.
“One of my goals was to be the first Irish winner and I know there are going to be loads of players coming through so I want to do it as soon as possible.”
ALL THE THIRD ROUND SCORES(Par 72):
208 Hazel Kavanagh (Irl) 68 73 67, Linda Wessberg (Swe) 70 68 70, Marjet van der Graaff (Ned) 69 67 72
209 Jade Schaeffer (Fra) 68 70 71, Bettina Hauert (Ger) 68 68 73
210 Veronica Zorzi (Ita) 69 70 71, Laura Davies (Eng) 67 69 74
211 Melissa Reid (Eng) 67 74 70, Gwladys Nocera (Fra) 70 70 71, Johanna Westerberg (Swe) 70 68 73
212 Frances Bondad (Aus) 74 69 69, Smriti Mehra (Ind) 70 71 71, Maria Boden (Swe) 70 71 71
213 Federica Piovano (Ita) 69 72 72
214 Caroline Afonso (Fra) 72 71 71
215 Dana Lacey (Aus) 72 73 70, Morgana Robbertze (Rsa) 74 70 71, Felicity Johnson (Eng) 71 71 73
216 Anja Monke (Ger) 70 74 72, Ursula Wikstrom (Fin) 71 73 72, Joanne Mills (Aus) 76 67 73, Lydia Hall (Wal) 69 72 75
217 Tara Delaney (Irl) 74 73 70, Elena Giraud (Fra) 73 70 74, Rebecca Coakley (Irl) 67 72 78
218 Lotta Wahlin (Swe) 74 74 70, Katharina Schallenberg (Ger) 74 74 70, Stefania Croce (Ita) 74 74 70, Samantha Head (Eng) 73 74 71, Ellen Smets (Bel) 74 73 71, Lisa Hall (Eng) 74 72 72, Malene Jorgensen (Den) 70 76 72, Becky Brewerton (Wal) 72 73 73, Christine Hallstrom (Swe) 71 73 74, Nina Reis (Swe) 71 73 74, Titiya Plucksataporn (Tha) 73 70 75, Christel Boeljon (Ned) 71 71 76
219 Laurette Maritz (Rsa) 71 77 71, Jenni Kuosa (Fin) 75 72 72, Stefanie Michl (Aut) 69 77 73, Martina Hochwimmer (Am) (Aut) 74 71 74, Lisa Holm Sorensen (Den) 75 70 74, Sophie Walker (Eng) 74 71 74, Nicole Gergely (Aut) 71 72 76, Virginie Lagoutte-Clement (Fra) 72 70 77
220 Lynnette Brooky (Nzl) 73 75 72, Ana B Sanchez (Spa) 75 71 74, Johanna Mundy (Eng) 72 72 76, Elisabeth Esterl (Ger) 71 72 77
221 Zuzana Masinova (Cro) 73 75 73, Lora Fairclough (Eng) 75 72 74, Elizabeth Bennett (Eng) 76 70 75, Kyra van Leeuwen (Ned) 73 73 75, Bronwyn Mullins-Lane (Aus) 73 73 75, Clare Queen (Sco) 72 70 79
222 Stacy Lee Bregman (Rsa) 74 74 74, Julie Tvede (Den) 74 74 74, Riikka Hakkarainen (Fin) 74 73 75, Camille Fallay (Fra) 71 76 75, Marina Stutz (Am) (Aut) 76 71 75, Lee-Anne Pace (Rsa) 73 73 76
223 Anna Knutsson (Swe) 74 74 75, Marta Prieto (Spa) 67 81 75, Nikki Garrett (Aus) 75 73 75, Rebecca Hudson (Eng) 71 76 76, Pamela Feggans (Sco) 73 71 79
224 Marina Kotnik (Am) (Aut) 74 74 76, Julie Greciet (Fra) 72 76 76, Trish Johnson (Eng) 70 77 77
225 Anna Tybring (Swe) 71 77 77, Breanne Alicia Loucks (Wal) 72 76 77
226 Kiran Matharu (Eng) 72 76 78, Isabella Maconi (Ita) 74 73 79
227 Mianne Bagger (Den) 76 72 79
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