Leona Maguire 8 behind in Portugal

Leona Maguire left with Louise Mernagh centre and sister Lisa right on the 18th tee during Tuesday’s practice round. Picture courtesy ilgu.ieDefending champion Leona Maguire fell eight shots behind runaway leader Rebecca Roeller of Germany entering the final round of the Portuguese Ladies Amateur Open in Lisbon.

The 17-year old fired a level par 72 to move up to joint second place at Montado Golf Resort but Roeller hit a two under par 70 to lead on six under par.

As twin sister Lisa hit a 70 in cold and damp conditions to move up to fourth, nine shots off the pace, Leona got off to a poor start when her opening tee shot ricocheted off the branch of a tree and out of bounds.

A birdie, birdie, birdie, par, birdie blitz saw her turn one under and she played the tough back nine in one over par to sign for a 72 that left her tied with Perrine Delacour of France on two over par 218.

Lisa finally received some reward for her stunning iron play this week with a marvellous two under par 70 to leapfrog her from sixteenth place overnight to fourth.

Two halves of 35 saw her comfortably reduce the deficit on the leaders, though by her own admission it could have been even better after missing birdie putts inside 10 feet on both the 17th and 18th.

Gillian O’Leary signed for an 80 after a slow start which sees her into the top forty for the final round tomorrow while Paula Grant closed with a 77 to unluckily miss the cut by just one stroke.

Lucy Simpson endured a triple and quadruple bogey in her otherwise satisfactory 79 but joins Jean O’Driscoll who carded an 80 on the sidelines tomorrow after missing out by three strokes.

Leaders after 54 Holes:
210 Roberta Roeller GER 66 74 70
218 Leona Maguire IRL 72 74 72
218 Perrine Delacour FRA 70 76 72
219 Lisa Maguire IRL 73 76 70
220 Ariane Provot FRA 68 78 74
221 Karlijn Zaanen NED 71 74 76
221 Vicki Troeltsch GER 72 78 71
221 Anne Hakula FIN 68 76 77
222 Nina Holleder GER 74 72 76
222 Quirine Louise Eijkenboom GER 72 75 75
222 Clara Baena Sanchez SPA 69 76 77
222 Nuria Iturrios Servera SPA 69 80 73
223 Ann-Kathrin Lindner GER 72 76 75
223 Antonia Scherer GER 74 72 77
224 Celine Boutier FRA 73 77 74
224 Teresa Caballer SPA 78 71 75
224 Celia Barquin SPA 72 77 75
224 Maria Parra SPA 78 72 74
225 Sandra Salonen FIN 73 74 78
225 Ha Rang Lee SPA 77 75 73
225 Matilda Castren FIN 69 76 80
226 Bianca Maria Fabrizio ITA 75 75 76
226 Karolin Lampert GER 74 77 75
226 Ainhoa Olarra Mujika SPA 76 77 73
226 Covadonga Sanjuan SPA 78 74 74
228 Noora Tamminen FIN 78 77 73
228 Marika Voss FIN 73 82 73
229 Susana Mendes Ribeiro POR 75 73 81
229 Laura Lonardi ITA 75 81 73
229 Elodie Bridenne FRA 74 80 75
229 Ana Sanjuan Gutierrez SPA 74 79 76
230 Gillian O’Leary IRL 74 76 80
230 Marta Martin Garcia SPA 75 75 80
230 Celia Mansour FRA 73 77 80
230 Gabriella Cowley ENG 72 79 79
230 Laura Chemarin FRA 73 79 78
230 Lara Katzy GER 76 76 78
231 Roberta Liti ITA 80 78 73
231 Andrea Joanama SPA 75 80 76
231 Charlotte Charrayre FRA 75 79 77

Missed the cut
232 Paula Grant IRL 73 82 77
232 Mandy Goyos Ball SPA 78 80 74
233 Krista Bakker FIN 78 76 79
233 Danielle Anderson ENG 76 80 77
233 Dulcie Sverdloff ENG 78 76 79
233 Lena Gautier FRA 79 77 77
234 Lucy Simpson IRL 78 77 79
234 Jean O’Driscoll IRL 76 78 80
234 Emilia Ottela FIN 75 82 77
234 Alexandra Moisand FRA 79 73 82
234 Karina Kukkonen FIN 76 79 79
234 Jessica Wilcox ENG 73 82 79
234 Rachel Elizabeth Drummond ENG 73 82 79
234 Larissa Skodda GER 76 82 76
234 Chloé Leurquim BEL 76 77 81
235 Olivia Cowan GER 73 81 81
236 Louise Latorre FRA 79 78 79
238 Maria Parron Alferez SPA 76 82 80
238 Thelma Beck FRA 74 84 80
238 Claudia Chemin FRA 76 80 82
239 Stefania Avanzo ITA 80 78 81
239 Isabel Jimenez Perea SPA 80 78 81
239 Sophie Keech ENG 83 78 78
239 Marion Benzekri FRA 77 81 81
240 Anyssia Herbaut FRA 79 77 84
243 Aedin Murphy IRL 77 77 89

Other Irish Scores
246 Sarah Cunningham 83 78 85
247 Louise Mernagh 80 83 84
??? Victoria Bradshaw 79 85 ??
253 Jessica Carty 86 86 81