Ardina fires 69, Pagdanganan cards 73 in 3rd round

Dottie Ardina and Bianca Pagdanganan of the Philippines fired 69 and 73, respectively, in the third round at the Paris Olympics women's individual stroke late Friday night (Manila time) at the Le Golf Nacional.
Bouncing back from a bad 76 in the first round and a decent 72 in the second, Ardina found her game in the third frame as she shot three strokes under par.
The 30-year-old Ardina scored a birdie each on the fourth, sixth, and eighth holes for a good start at the front. She found trouble at the back nine, having incurred a bogey on the 12th and a double bogey on the 16th.
She negated that three strokes over with a birdie on the 17th and an eagle on the 18th to tally 217 for solo 23rd place, 13 notches higher than her ranking after two rounds.

On the other hand, Pagdanganan lost her rhythm after carding a 72 in the first round and a solid 69 the next day that put her at joint sixth place entering the third round.
Pagdanganan scored one stroke over in the third as she dropped to joint 13th place with a two-under 214 overall.
The 26-year-old incurred a birdie on the second hole and then a bogey each on the fourth and eighth holes before finishing the front with a birdie on the ninth.
Pagdanganan carded a birdie each on 12th and 17th holes before arresting it with a birdie on the last.

She is seven strokes behind co-leaders Morgane Metraux of Switzerland and Lydia Ko of New Zealand.

The fourth and final round is set on Saturday with Ardina teeing off at 5:17 p.m. and Pagdanganan at 5:44 p.m.