COUGHLIN DIGS DEEP TO LEAD BY TWO HEADING INTO FINAL ROUND OF ARAMCO CHAMPIONSHIP

Overnight leader Lauren Coughlin produced resilient golf in brutal conditions as she recovered from a stuttering start to hold a two-shot advantage after the third round of the $4m Aramco Championship on Saturday.

Five strokes clear at the tournament's midway point, the American rebounded from two bogeys in her first six holes and two more after the turn to card a 1-over 73 at Shadow Creek in the PIF Global Series event co-sanctioned by the LPGA and Ladies European Tour (LET).

That was good enough to leave Coughlin at 7-under, two ahead of American world No. 2 Nelly Korda, who returned a 69. Japan's sixth-ranked Miyu Yamashita and Denmark's Nanna Koerstz Madsen were a further two strokes back at 3-under after carding matching 71s.

"This golf course is really, really hard, especially if you get in the wrong spot," said Coughlin, who was a runner-up to Madelene Sagstrom in the LPGA Tour's T-Mobile Match Play event staged at Shadow Creek last year. "I felt like I did a pretty good job today of at least getting in spots, and if I did get a little out, making sure I walked away with no worse than bogey.

"It's just about staying as patient as possible and taking what it gives ... just trying to guess as best you can on some of the bounces and hope the wind catches it when you're trying to get it. Yeah, just going to keep trying to stay as patient as I possibly can tomorrow and whatever happens, happens."

Only eight players produced sub-par rounds on a Tom Fazio-designed layout running fast and firm in gusting winds, and missed putts from around three or four feet were a feature of the day as enthusiastic crowds watched the world's best golfers forced to engage in damage limitation.

Coughlin began the day with a commanding five-shot lead and that quickly became six strokes after her playing partner Leona Maguire and Hyo Joo Kim each bogeyed the par-4 first.

However, that advantage was soon shrunk to just three after Coughlin bogeyed the par-4 third and Korda had birdied the third and fourth to climb into second place on her own. Coughlin then dropped another shot at the par-4 sixth for her lead to be trimmed to just two.

She immediately bounced back, though, with a birdie at the par-5 7th before parring the next two holes to reach the turn at 7-under, with a three-shot cushion. Coughlin picked up another shot at the par-4 11th, but she then made her third bogey of the day at the par-3 13th where she missed the green off the tee and misjudged her chip from the rough.

Another misstep followed at the 14th, where she missed a three-foot par putt, and she did well to save par at the 15th where she sank a testing seven-footer.

"That was huge in kind of just getting any kind of momentum going into the last few holes because it was so start-stop in the middle of that back nine," said the 33-year-old Coughlin, who has won twice on the LPGA Tour.

She went on to birdie the par-5 18th to give herself a timely boost heading into the final round.

Korda, who has finished second in her last two LPGA Tour starts, signed off with birdies at the 17th and 18th to stay in the hunt for what would be her 17th LPGA Tour victory.

"It's definitely encouraging and great momentum, but from what I've learned with the game is you have to be really humble and happy for where you are right now," said the 27-year-old from Bradenton, Florida. "I don't really like to look ahead. I feel like you have to be really grateful for being in contention, being in another final group on a Sunday."

Korda was buoyed by her birdie-birdie finish but she did not want to look too far ahead given the brutal nature of the challenge at Shadow Creek. 

"It's good momentum, but tomorrow is just going to be another beast of a day," she said. "You just kind of have to roll with the punches from Shadow ... Shadow definitely showed its colours today, or the last couple days. It's been playing brutally hard, especially the back nine.

"I'm very happy with my round today. These rounds are kind of sometimes even mentally the hardest, so I stayed in it quite well."

New Zealand's Olympic gold medallist Lydia Ko posted the lowest round of the day, mixing six birdies with two bogeys on the way to an impressive 68 and a tie for ninth at 3-over.

The large crowds at Shadow Creek were treated to a spectacle of golf on and off the course, with 150 youngsters connected to the Muslim Golf Association treated to expert coaching sessions as part of Golf Saudi’s commitment to bringing the game to more people around the globe.

There was also a discussion about the investment potential and commercial opportunities between the United States and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia when thought leaders spoke at an FII Institute discussion session around the future of the game in the iconic Shadow Creek clubhouse.