The Philippines’ Dottie Ardina carded an even-par 72 on Saturday and would need a behemoth effort to land a podium finish in the Taiwan LPGA Players’ Championship at the Orient Golf and Country Club in Taoyuan City.
The 30-year-old Filipina is tied for seventh with one round left in the $1-million tournament after gathering a three-day total of 216.
That’s seven shots away from leader Haruka Kawasaki of Japan who is sitting on a comfortable four-stroke lead following a third-round 68 for a seven-under 209.
Fellow Japanese Rio Takeda is at 213 for solo second after a 70.
Ardina, kicking off her season in the meet, birdied Nos. 1 and 5 but stumbled right after with back-to-back bogeys from the sixth.
She birdied the 10th only to close out the round with a bogey on 18. She scored 73 and 71 on the first two rounds.
Taiwan’s Chen Yu-ju is at solo third after a 73 for 214 total. She’s followed one stroke back by a three-woman gridlock at fourth place composed of Yu-sang Hou (67) and Cheng Ssu-Chia (68) of Taiwan; and Kokona Sakurai of Japan (72).
Ardina is bunched with Japanese Sayaki Takahashi and Saiki Fujita who both had 72 Saturday.
