Pietro Bovari of Italy reacts at the 12th hole during the third round at the 2022 World Amateur Team Championship at Golf de Saint-Nom-la-Bretéche in Paris, France on Friday, Sept. 2, 2022. (Copyright USGA/Steven Gibbons)

Leona Maguire holed little but found herself just four shots behind American Lucy Li at halfway after carding a one-under 70 in the Dana Open in Ohio.

“Yeah, just a bit of a slow day,” Maguire said after a 32-putt round. “Gave myself lots of chances. Didn't quite putt as well as I did yesterday.”

Stephanie Meadow was in danger of missing the cut on one-over after a 72 but Paul Dunne produced a gutsy birdie-par finish to make just his fifth cut of the year in the Made in HimmerLand in Denmark.

Struggling to avoid Q-School, the Greystones star two-putted the par-five eighth for birdie, then got up and down from rough for par after going through the back at the ninth, making a three-footer for a level par 71 and make the weekend on the four-under cut mark

Jonny Caldwell also shot 71 to share 41st on six-under but, he’s nine strokes behind England’s Ross McGowan who shot 65 to lead by one from compatriot Richard Mansell and Italy’s Francesco Laporta on 15-under.

Gavin Moynihan (71, even) and Cormac Sharvin (76, five-over) missed the cut but Tom McKibbin and Conor Purcell are tied 29th at halfway in the B-NL Challenge Trophy in Belgium.

McKibbin shot a three-under 69 and Purcell a 68 to leave them just five shots behind France’s Keong weon Ko with John Murphy a shot further back after a 72.

Ross McGowan of England lines up a putt on the 9th hole during Day Two of the Made in HimmerLand at Himmerland Golf & Spa Resort on September 02, 2022 in Aalborg, Denmark. (Photo by Stuart Franklin/Getty Images)

Ronan Mullarney shot a bogey-free 66 but missed the five-under cut by a shot with Ruaidhri McGee (70, three-under), Gary Hurley (73, one-under) and Robin Dawson (72, six-over).

In the World Amateur Team Championships in Paris, Ireland go into the final day tied 27th on three-under.

Matt McClean shot a three-under 69 and Mark Power a 71 at Golf de Saint-Nom-la-Bretèche with Robert Moran’s 75 the non-counting score.

Sweden, powered by an eight-under 64 from Tobias Jonsson and a 66 from Ludvig Aberg, lead by a shot on 23-under from Italy, Japan and the USA.

We won’t win the World Championship with the brake on,” said Swedish coach Jonnie Eriksson about Saturday’s final round at Le Golf National. “We need to do our absolute best and hope for some stuff to go our way. There are seven or eight teams in the running. It is going to be awesome tomorrow.”

The Swedes climbed 10 places on the leaderboard based on their 14-under 130 in the third round, which is the second-best team score in Round 3 in Eisenhower Trophy history. The USA set the mark of 128 in Japan in 2014 fueled by Bryson DeChambeau’s championship-record 61.

Entering the final round at Le Golf National, the site of the 2018 Ryder Cup and the 2024 Olympic Games, Sweden is one stroke ahead of first- and second-round leader Japan, Italy and the United States of America. The hosts from France trail by two strokes in fifth place.

“We decided to be very aggressive today because we were a few shots back,” Jonsson said. “I went for it today and I played solid from the start.” The Mercer University junior shared the low round of the day honours with Ashita Piamkulvanich of Thailand, who shot a bogey-free 7-under 64 at Le Golf National.

Italy, which held solo second place at the start of day, drew a 3-under 69 from Pietro Bovari and a 2-under 70 from 2022 Open Championship low amateur Filippo Celli.

oeng Weon KO of France plays a fairway shot at the 17th hole on Day Two of the B-NL Challenge Trophy by Hulencourt at Hulencourt on September 2, 2022 in Genappe, Belgium. (Photo by Neil Baynes/Getty Images)

“We didn’t play our best to be honest,” said Italian Captain Matteo Delpodio. “It has been a tough day. We had to save a lot of pars. Celli was good on the back nine, but he didn’t play his best golf but was able to manage a good score. It is quite good because there is room for improvement, and we know that tomorrow we have to go low to bring home this championship.”

Japan, which held a five-stroke advantage at the midway point, surrendered its lead because it could not contend with Sweden’s low-scoring surge.

Taiga Semikawa posted a 3-under 69 but World Amateur Golf Ranking®/WAGR® No. 1 Keita Nakajima’s 3-over 75 was a counting score.

“I think playing with the big lead on the first day and then a big lead after the second day, there was always going to be a tough day,” Gareth Jones, Japan’s Captain. “Hopefully, it’s Day 3 that’s the tough day and not Day 4. You never want to defend the lead. You can’t do that. I think today’s a lesson for the lads that we’ve got to keep playing because there are great players out here.”

The USA combined a 4-under from Michael Thorbjornsen with a 3-under from Austin Greaser to put themselves back into contention and tossed out a 1-under from Gordon Sargent.

“They drove it beautifully,” said USA Captain Diana Murphy. “We struggled with the greens but in terms of their off-the-tee play, it was really impressive. I’d say it was our strongest day. The greens got us today, but they found a deep composed spirit again. We are here to give this a really good fight. We’d love to go home with the Eisenhower Trophy.”

Completing the top 10, Spain holds sixth place followed by Norway in seventh, Argentina in eighth, Wales in ninth and fast-moving Austria in 10th.

Quotable:

Jonnie Eriksson, Sweden Coach: “The first day Ludvig (Aberg) wasn’t his usual Ludvig off the tee. Today, he played the way I know him. He was just being Ludvig.”

“They were good off the tee. If you are really good and straight off the tee here, it offers a lot of opportunities. Their wedges were great, and we talked about being much more aggressive in this round than we had in the others.”

Captain Matteo Delpodio, Italy: “We are focused on performance because it is the world championship, and a lot of best players are competing here. We cannot think too much about the results. There are so many teams within very few shots, so it means we have to focus just on our game make birdies on every single hole and see what happens.”

Captain Gareth Jones, Japan: “There’s probably eight or nine teams who are really within close striking distance in this format that can change in an instant. We have got to play our best golf tomorrow.”

“Even par for us around here is a tough day, a disappointing day. Taiga has kept us in the golf tournament. I think if you told us we’d be in the top 2 of 3 going into the final round, would we be happy? Absolutely. One from the lead is an awesome opportunity for the boys. Hopefully, we will make the most of that.”

Michael Thorbjornsen, USA: “For the first time this week, I started hitting the ball well and hitting my driver well. I hit a lot of greens, but I shot 4 under with 33 putts and that means you aren’t putting well. There was something about the greens I couldn’t figure out but I’m hitting the ball well and I’ll always take that. It gives me confidence for tomorrow.”

Notable:

Sweden will attempt to join the USA as the only nations to win both the men’s and women’s competitions in the same year. The last time it happened was in France in 1994 as the USA won both golds, which they also accomplished in 1968, 1970, 1972, 1974, 1980 and 1982. Sweden won the 2022 Women’s World Amateur Team Championship last week in a tiebreaker over the USA.
Sweden’s leaderboard move was only outdone by Austria, which fired an 11-under 133 to advance 13 places to 10th.
Thailand had the best day at Le Golf National at 9-under 133 and moved 11 spots on the scoreboard to T27.
Seven players from the Eisenhower Trophy field have been selected for the Haskins Award Watch List: Ludvig Aberg (Sweden, Texas Tech), Adrien Dumont de Chassart (Belgium, Ilinois), Mateo Fernandez de Oliveira (Argentina, Arkansas), Austin Greaser (USA, North Carolina), Christo Lamprecht (South Africa, Georgia Tech), Gordon Sargent (USA, Vanderbilt) and Michael Thorbjornsen (USA, Stanford). The Haskins Award honors the player of the year in men’s college golf. The Watch List is selected by a panel of Golfweek and Golf Channel writers.
Japan’s last medal in the WATC was gold in 1984 as they won the Eisenhower Trophy in Hong Kong. Their other medals came in T2 in 1982 (tied for silver) and in 1974 and 1976 (silver in both).
Jon Rahm of Spain holds the record for lowest individual 72-hole score at 263 in 2014. Taiga Semikawa of Japan stands at 18-under with the individual lead and has a chance to break that record. Previously, the scoring record of 269 was held by Jack Nicklaus of the USA in 1960 and stood until Rahm’s performance in Japan.

What’s Next:

Round 4 begins Saturday at 8 a.m. with a two-tee start on both courses. The teams with the leading scores will play at Le Golf National and the other half of the draw will play at Golf de Saint-Nom-La-Bretèche.

Results from Friday's third round of the 2022 World Amateur Team Championships, played at par-71 Le Golf National (Albatross Course) and par-72 Golf de Saint-Nom-La-Bretèche (Red Course), in Paris, France.

GN = Le Golf National

SN = Golf de Saint-Nom-La-Bretèche

1 Sweden 137-GN 140-SN 130- --407

Ludvig Aberg 70 68 66

Tobias Jonsson 67 72 64

Adam Wallin 71 73 70

T2 Italy 135-SN 134-SN 139- --408

Pietro Bovari 68 70 69

Filippo Celli 67 65 70

Marco Florioli 68 69 74

T2 Japan 130-GN 134-SN 144- --408

Keita Nakajima 72 69 75

Kohei Okada 67 70 76

Taiga Semikawa 63 65 69

T2 United States of America 136-SN 135-SN 137- --408

Austin Greaser 68 67 69

Gordon Sargent 70 72 71

Michael Thorbjornsen 68 68 68

5 France 135-SN 135-SN 139- --409

Martin Couvra 67 70 71

Julien Sale 68 73 69

Tom Vaillant 69 65 70

6 Spain 136-GN 137-SN 138- --411

Josele Ballester 70 72 74

Luis Masaveu 71 71 66

David Puig 66 66 72

7 Norway 138-SN 135-SN 139- --412

Mats Ege 68 71 71

Michael Mjaaseth 70 68 68

Herman Wibe Sekne 70 67 73

8 Argentina 141-GN 137-SN 135- --413

Mateo Fernandez de Oliveira 74 72

Juan Martín Loureiro 77 69 67

Segundo Oliva Pinto 69 68 68

9 Wales 139-SN 137-SN 139- --415

James Ashfield 76 69 70

Archie Davies 65 69 69

Luke Harries 74 68 72

10 Austria 137-GN 147-SN 133- --417

Christoph Bleier 68 78 66

Fabian Lang 79 82 73

Maximilian Steinlechner 69 69 67

T11 Belgium 144-SN 134-SN 140- --418

Matthis Besard 71 71 71

Adrien Dumont de Chassart73 63 69

James Skeet 77 74 78

T11 Germany 135-SN 141-SN 142- --418

Anton Albers 70 74 73

Jonas Baumgartner 65 71 71

Laurenz Schiergen 75 70 71

T13 Finland 142-GN 139-SN 138- --419

Elias Haavisto 68 68 70

Antti-Jussi Lintunen 75 71 70

Markus Luoma 74 75 68

T13 Switzerland 137-GN 142-SN 140- --419

Nicola Gerhardsen 77 71 72

Cedric Gugler 66 71 68

Maximilien Sturdza 71 73 75

15 Australia 139-GN 137-SN 144- --420

Harrison Crowe 69 70 72

Hayden Hopewell 70 74 73

Connor McKinney 71 67 72

16 England 136-SN 145-SN 140- --421

Sam Bairstow 68 73 69

Arron Edwards-Hill 72 72 71

John Gough 68 73 74

T17 Colombia 144-SN 138-SN 140- --422

Carlos Ardila 71 74 70

Manuel Merizalde 73 68 74

Nicolas Quintero Macias 76 70 70

T17 Denmark 141-SN 143-SN 138- --422

Hamish Brown 71 74 74

Frederik Kjettrup 70 77 70

Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen75 69 68

T19 Estonia 146-SN 136-SN 141- --423

Mattias Varjun 74 68 71

Kevin Christopher Jegers 76 68 70

Markus Varjun 72 78 71

T19 Singapore 139-SN 140-SN 144- --423

Ryan Ang 68 73 78

James Leow 76 70 70

Hiroshi Tai 71 70 74

T19 South Africa 139-SN 141-SN 143- --423

Christo Lamprecht 72 70 74

Christiaan Maas 68 71 69

Aldrich Potgieter 71 71 74

T22 Canada 141-GN 135-SN 148- --424

A.J. Ewart 70 70 75

Garrett Rank 71 76 77

Johnny Travale 77 65 73

T22 Hong Kong, China 139-GN 143-SN 142- --424

Leon Philip D'Souza 72 72 73

Taichi Kho 70 71 73

Alex Yang 69 76 69

T24 Chile 146-SN 138-SN 141- --425

Martin Leon 74 72 73

Lukas Roessler 73 68 69

Clemente Silva 73 70 72

T24 Iceland 141-GN 143-SN 141- --425

Hlynur Bergsson 69 77 71

Sigurdur Blumenstein 72 85 78

Hakon Magnusson 72 66 70

26 Czech Republic 143-GN 144-SN 139- --426

Filip Jakubcik 70 71 70

Dominik Pavoucek 73 73 70

Jiri Zuska 74 78 69

T27 Ireland 142-GN 145-SN 140- --427

Matthew McClean 73 74 69

Robert Moran 74 72 75

Mark Power 69 73 71

T27 Thailand 148-GN 144-GN 133- --425

Arsit Areephun 76 69 71

Pongsapak Laopakdee 76 75 69

Ashita Piamkulvanich 72 76 64

29 Portugal 145-SN 146-GN 136- --427

Daniel Costa Rodrigues 73 73 68

Hugo Camelo 72 73 74

Pedro Cruz Silva 75 74 68

T30 Guatemala 145-SN 138-SN 147- --430

Miguel Leal 76 68 73

Gabriel Palacios 69 70 74

Alejandro Villavicencio 79 72 77

T30 Republic of Korea 146-SN 142-SN 142- --430

Haecheon An 78 75 79

Minhyuk Song 72 67 72

HyunJoon Yoo 74 77 70

T30 Scotland 142-GN 148-SN 140- --430

Callum Bruce 73 76 70

Rory Franssen 72 78 70

Calum Scott 70 72 72

T33 India 145-SN 143-SN 143- --431

Raghav Chugh 73 77 73

Milind Soni 75 73 76

Rayhan Thomas 72 70 70

T33 People's Republic of China 144-SN 146-SN 141- --431

Wenyi Ding 69 72 68

Tianyi Xiong 75 76 73

Ziqin Zhou 82 74 74

35 Netherlands 142-GN 142-SN 149- --433

Jack Ingham 70 71 79

Benjamin Reuter 74 71 78

Lars van der Vight 72 71 71

36 Puerto Rico 147-SN 142-SN 145- --434

Jeronimo Esteve 73 69 71

Roberto Nieves 74 73 75

Diego Saavedra Davila 81 79 74

T37 Ecuador 145-GN 142-SN 148- --435

Ben Cohn 74 72 79

Nico Escobar 71 71 74

Philippe Thorin Andretta 76 71 74

T37 New Zealand 144-SN 142-SN 149- --435

James Hydes 76 70 77

Sam Jones 71 80 73

Kazuma Kobori 73 72 76

T39 Mexico 152-SN 140-GN 146- --438

Santiago De La Fuente 77 68 72

José Islas 75 72 74

José Antonio Safa 78 74 76

T39 Turkey 147-SN 148-GN 143- --438

Ali Berk Berker 72 75 71

Leon Açıkalın 75 73 72

Taner Yamaç 80 79 76

T41 Chinese Taipei 145-GN 150-GN 144- --439

Chao-Hsin Hung 71 79 78

Sun-Yi Lu 77 77 71

Ching-Hung Su 74 73 73

T41 Panama 150-SN 146-GN 143- --439

Raul Carbonell 76 74 76

Miguel Ordonez 78 77 67

Omar Tejeira 74 72 80

T41 Venezuela 150-GN 143-GN 146- --439

Ignacio Arcaya 76 83 77

Virgilio Paz 82 64 70

Santiago Quintero 74 79 76

44 Brazil 147-SN 147-GN 146- --440

Homero de Toledo 80 74 76

Guilherme Grinberg 73 73 76

Andrey Xavier 74 81 70

45 Cayman Islands 154-GN 144-GN 145- --443

Joel Dodson 80 79 79

Justin Hastings 81 74 69

Aaron Jarvis 74 70 76

46 Bulgaria 148-GN 152-GN 144- --444

Hristo Yanakiev 73 77 71

Kristian Tsvetanov 81 83 75

Lyubomir Tushev 75 75 73

T47 Lithuania 143-SN 153-GN 149- --445

Giedrius Mackelis 70 76 77

Paulius Malcius 80 77 73

David Razinskas 73 77 76

T47 Luxembourg 149-GN 147-GN 149- --445

Stefan Rojas 78 75 75

Charles Weis 71 72 74

T49 Poland 151-SN 153-GN 144- --448

Alejandro Pedryc 75 73 72

Jakub Dymecki 76 80 75

Andrzej Wierzba Jr. 83 80 72

T49 Slovakia 149-SN 148-GN 151- --448

Matej Babic 79 78 81

René Bergendi 74 72 78

Matus Kudlac 75 76 73

T49 Slovenia 151-SN 148-GN 149- --448

Luka Naglic 71 73 75

Gal Patrik Stirn 80 77 76

52 Morocco 150-GN 151-GN 148- --449

Mohamed Nizar Bourehim 75 75 80

El Mehdi Fakori 78 76 72

Hugo Mazen Trommetter 75 78 76

53 Dominican Republic 156-GN 150-GN 144- --450

Juan Cayro Delgado 79 78 79

Rhadames Peña 78 72 71

Julio Rios Brache 78 79 73

54 Hungary 153-SN 149-GN 149- --451

Oliver Csanyi 76 73 74

Richard Sarközi 81 94 81

Bálint Závaczki 77 76 75

55 Saudi Arabia 151-GN 156-GN 146- --453

Abdulrahman Almansour 87 87 87

Saud AlSharif 71 74 77

Faisal Salhab 80 82 69

56 Egypt 158-SN 148-GN 148- --454

Mohamed Abou El Ela 87 82 98

Issa Abou El Ela 77 73 70

Dean Naime 81 75 78

57 Philippines 150-SN 147-GN 159- --456

Aidric Chan 77 73 WD

Carl Corpus 73 75 73

Joaquin Hernandez 79 74 86

T58 Serbia 150-GN 154-GN 153- --457

Dane Cvetković 73 72 75

Nikola Ćuić 77 82 78

Marko Jokić 89 83 80

T58 Ukraine 159-GN 151-GN 147- --457

Timur Alalin 81 89 82

Lev Grinberg 78 73 70

Ivan Malovychko 81 78 77

60 Croatia 151-GN 158-GN 152- --461

Ivan Vučemil 79 80 82

Lovro Horvat 72 78 71

Leo Zurovac 80 81 81

61 Trinidad and Tobago 157-SN 147-GN 158- --462

Liam Bryden 79 72 77

Zico Correia 78 75 86

Christopher Junior Richards 80 81

T62 Bermuda 157-GN 158-GN 150- --465

Jarryd Dillas 76 76 75

Will Haddrell 81 82 75

Damian Palanyandi 84 82 79

T62 Costa Rica 160-GN 153-GN 152- --465

Paul Chaplet 78 76 75

Jose Ignacio Cordero 82 77 78

Nicolas Tobon 83 80 77

64 Zimbabwe 157-SN 151-GN 158- --466

Rasheed Mohamed 76 77 79

Keegan Shutt 81 74 79

Clifford Sibanda 89 79 84

65 Uruguay 152-GN 163-GN 157- --472

Andre Gauthier 79 85 86

Juan Pedro Altamirano 79 85 91

Mateo Quiroga 73 78 71

T66 Pakistan 160-GN 161-GN 154- --475

Omar Khalid Hussain 85 75 79

Salman Jehangir 84 86 75

Yashal Shah 76 86 86

T66 Qatar 158-SN 160-GN 157- --475

Saleh Ali Al Kaabi 78 79 75

Jaham Al Kuwari 80 81 82

Ali Al Shahrani 81 84 WD

68 United Arab Emirates 160-GN 151-GN 168- --479

Abdalla Al Musharrekh 92 86 88

Ahmad Akram Skaik 78 75 WD

Khalid Yousuf 82 76 80

T69 Bahrain 172-GN 157-GN 158- --487

Abdulla Alyaqoob 87 90 81

Khalifa Mohamed Khalifa 86 80 82

Faah Sultan 86 77 77

T69 Guam 167-GN 164-GN 156- --487

Redge Camacho 78 81 76

Markus Nanpei 89 89 82

Nalapon Vongjalorn 93 83 80

71 Lebanon 168-SN 172-GN 159- --499

Rachid Akl 82 84 81

Mazen Hamdan 86 88 79

Mehdi Ramadan 87 93 80