| -18 L Vu (USA); -17 L KB (NZ); -16 E Pedesen (Den), A Ashok (Ind); -13 L Thompson (USA) |
| Selected:-11 C Hull (Eng), G Hall (Eng); -8 C Gainer (Eng); -7 L Maguire (Ireland), A Hewson (Eng); -4 C Williams (Wal); -2 G Dryburgh (Sco); +6 B Brewerton (Wall) |
| Full ranking |
American Lilia Vu leads world number one Lydia Ko by one stroke heading into the final round of the Aramco Saudi Ladies International.
The 25-year-old shot a seven-under round, finishing with a long eagle putt on the 18th for a 65 to move to 18-under for the tournament.
Ko shot a 66 with birdies in the fifth, seventh, eighth, ninth, 10th and 17th.
American Lexi Thompson entered the fray, tying the course record with a 63 for a total of 13 under.
Vu got off to a good start at Royal Greens Golf and Country Club with a birdie on the first shot, but she dropped her only shot of the day on the second.
She recovered with back-to-back birdies on holes three, four and five and added more birdies on holes nine and 14 before finishing on a high.
“I find I play my best when I’m having fun, so I’ll just try to do that tomorrow,” she said. “I had a lot of fun playing with Lydia [Ko] Today. When you play with good players, you tend to play better, and she hits the ball so well.
“I was actually a bit nervous coming here because it’s the start of my season and the first tournament of the year for me. I felt a bit rusty and then once I started to trust, the game got better on its own.”
The $5m (£4.16m) purse available at the event is the third largest offered on the Ladies European Tour.
It corresponds to the prize money of the PIF Saudi International men on the Asian tour, having been multiplied by five.
