Stephanie Meadow and Leona Maguire battle gamely in Australia

In difficult, windswept conditions in the third round of the ISPS Handa Vic Open at the 13th Beach Golf Links on the Bellarine Peninsula in Victoria, both Stephanie Meadow and Leona Maguire stuck gamely to the task at hand to remain in contention in the tournament sanctioned by the LPGA Tour.

With only one player in the women’s tournament managing to break 70, Meadow and Maguire retained their focus to each sign for 74s: Meadow moved up to tied-eighth position on six-under through 54 holes, while Maguire moved up to a share of 11th on five-under. South Korea’s Ayean Choi assumed the 54-hole lead on 12-under, a shot clear of Sweden’s Madeline Sagstrom.

Meadow had three birdies and five bogeys in her round, while Maguire - who had the support of Irish sporting legend Sonia O’Sullivan for much of her round - had a round that featured two birdies and four bogeys.

In her rookie season on the LPGA Tour having graduated from the Symetra Tour last season, Maguire is on target to claim some valuable early-season points on the order of merit. “Battle really well in some brutal winds this afternoon, looking forward to tomorrow. So cool to have the legend @soniagrith out supporting today,” she posted on social media after her round.

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With a third round cut to facilitate smaller fields for the final round, it proved to be a difficult learning curve for both Jonathan Caldwell and Cormac Sharvin who shot rounds of 77 (for five-under 211) and 75 (for 212) to miss the 54-hole cut. Australia’s Min Woo Lee assumed the outright lead heading into the final round of the men’s event, carding a 68 for 15-under.

Women’s selected third round scores & totals in the LPGA Tour ISPS Handa Vic Open (USA unless stated, par 72):

(a) denotes amateurs

205 A-yean Cho (Kor) 69 66 70

206 Madelene Sagstrom (Swe) 65 67 74

207 Alena Sharp (Can) 68 69 70

208 Hee Young Park (Kor) 68 68 72

209 So Yeon Ryu (Kor) 71 70 68, Pei-ying Tsai (Tai) 68 68 73

210 Minjee Lee (Aus) 69 67 74

211 Stephanie Meadow (NIrl) 67 70 74, Pornanong Phatlum (Tha) 67 70 74, Linnea Strom (Swe) 66 69 76

212 Emma Talley (USA) 73 66 73, Dana Finkelstein (USA) 67 73 72, Hye Jin Choi (Kor) 69 68 75, Robyn Choi (Aus) 70 65 77, Leona Maguire (Irl) 69 69 74

213 Perrine Delacour (Fra) 69 69 75, Tiffany Joh (USA) 67 73 73, Jeong Eun Lee (Kor) 71 70 72, Hannah Green (Aus) 69 73 71, Ssu-Chia Cheng (Chn) 71 71 71, Haeji Kang (Kor) 65 71 77, Ho-Yu An (a) (Tpe) 70 71 72, Yu Liu (Chn) 70 71 72

Selected third round scores & totals in the European Tour ISPS Handa Vic Open (Gbr & Irl unless stated, par 72):

(a) denotes amateurs

201 Min Woo Lee (Aus) 66 67 68

204 Travis Smyth (Aus) 65 67 72, Marcus Fraser (Aus) 70 65 69

206 Matthew Millar (Aus) 72 66 68, Anthony Quayle (Aus) 75 64 67, Robin Sciot-Siegrist (Fra) 66 64 76, Ashley Hall (Aus) 67 68 71

207 Matthew Jordan 72 66 69, Jed Morgan (Aus) 66 67 74, Ryan Fox (Nzl) 67 71 69, Rikard Karlberg (Swe) 69 68 70

The following players did not make the cut:

211 Sebastian Garcia Rodriguez (Spa) 68 71 72, Steven Jeffress (Aus) 67 72 72, Jonathan Caldwell 67 67 77, Brad Kennedy (Aus) 66 72 73, Matthew Griffin (Aus) 65 68 78, Luke Toomey (Aus) 71 68 72

212 Cormac Sharvin 70 67 75, Ashley Chesters 69 67 76, Lars Van Meijel (Ned) 68 67 77, Peter Lonard (Aus) 69 69 74, Wil Besseling (Ned) 67 69 76, Gareth Paddison (Nzl) 67 71 74, Martin Dive (Aus) 69 70 73, Derek Ackerman (USA) 67 69 76, Sean Crocker (USA) 67 70 75