Right after a superb second round, Dottie Ardina slumped with a two-over-par 74 on Saturday after three rounds of the Maybank LPGA Malaysia at the West course of the Kuala Lumpur Golf and Country Club.
Hoping to catch a ride in the Race to CME Globe, Ardina struggled with three bogeys — on the second, fourth and 12th — and could only shoot down a birdie at 14.
She slid to a share of 58th place at one-under 215. That is after a 73 in the first round and a 68 in the second round of the $3 million tournament.
Twenty-year-old American Rose Zhang sizzled with a 65 on Friday to hold a one-shot lead over Thais Atthaya Thitikul and Jasmine Suwannapura.
Zhang, winner of Mizuho Americas Open, dotted her round with eight birdies — including three straight starting from No. 2 — and a single bogey.
Zhang is at 18-under 198 with one more round left. But in close pursuit was Thitikul, another 20-year-old hotshot, who fired a sensational 10-under-par 62.
Thitikul birdied 10 holes in a flawless round, scoring in binges that included six from 11th to 17th.
Erstwhile leader Jasmine Suwannapura carded a 67 to share second place. South Korean Sei Young Kim is two strokes away following a 65 for solo fourth place.
Japanese-Filipina Yuka Saso ended up with a 71 bowing out of the title race.
Saso, who put herself in the early mix with a 67 Thursday, fell to joint 30th with a second-round 73. She bogeyed the par-5 third hole which she eagled in the previous round.
Though she recovered the stroke on the next, the ICTSI-backed 2021 US Women’s Open champion missed a couple of chances in the next six holes and then bogeyed the par-3 No. 11.
But she struck back with birdies on Nos. 13 and 14 and wound up with four straight pars for a 36-35 and a three-day haul of 211, 13 strokes off Zhang at tied 40th.
Ardina, who rebounded from a 73 with a 68, never recovered from a par-bogey-par-bogey start, yielding another stroke on No. 12 before hitting her first and only birdie in the day on No. 14.
Ardina missed 11 greens although she saved a number of shots with a 26-putt performance.
