Coughlan suffers bogey blues

ON a day when overseas players dominated at Shannon, Sophie Walker from Lincolnshire is poised to add the European Ladies Amateur Strokeplay title to the English Championship won recently.

Should the 19-year-old succeed in gaining the top honour today, she will become the first competitor since Joanne Morley (now a professional) did the double in 1992.

Walker stands one under par after rounds of 71, 73 and 74 and she leads Frenchwoman Sophie Giquel by one with another French player Virginie Beauchet two off the pace on 220.

Next comes Dewi Claire Schreefel of the Netherlands whose two under par 71 was the day's best return and, Walker apart, the third round was notable for the domination of the Continental players as the next leading contender from these islands is Clare Queen of Scotland in 16th place.

Cork's Claire Coughlan, like Queen, stands at seven over par in 19th place after a disappointing 80. Level par beginning the day, Coughlan bogeyed three of the first four holes but recovered to get it back to two over with a birdie at the 9th.

Another bogey followed at 11 but the real disaster came at the 15th when she four-putted from 30 feet to run up a triple bogey seven.

After two great opening days, Coughlan's title hopes were dealt a huge blow here and this morning she stands eight strokes off the lead.

Tricia Mangan from Ennis had also fared well on the opening two days but , like Coughlan, she too became unstuck on the last nine and had to settle for an 82.

She began by bogeying the second, third and eighth and looked good for a solid performance when landing a birdie at the 11th.

However, things took a drastic turn for the worse for the Ennis woman when she bogeyed 12, 13 and 14 and Mangan went right out of contention with double bogeys at the 15th and 16th holes.

Shannon player Heather Nolan produced the best Irish performance of the day - a three over 76 - but her title challenge was dented in the opening two rounds when she lost five strokes to par by going out of bounds at the first on each occasion.

Yesterday, she made no mistake on the first tee and birdies at five and seven saw her reach the turn in level par 39. She was still level after 13 but bogeys at 14, 15 and 17 made for a disappointing finish in conditions that were far from ideal as the blustery wind and a few showers made it difficult for all.

The top 70 and ties will contest the final round today.