Celine Boutier holds a three-shot lead at the end of the third day of the FREED GROUP Women’s Scottish Open after firing a round of 66 (-6).
The Frenchwoman, who secured her first major title at last week’s Amundi Evian Championship, rolled in birdies on holes two, three, five and seven before dropping a shot on the ninth.
Boutier continued to impress with birdies on 12 and 14 followed by a bogey on 15 but she finished in style with back-to-back birdies on 17 and 18 for her round of six-under.
The major champion sits at the top of the leaderboard on 13-under-par at Dundonald Links and is in search of back-to-back victories.
“I definitely feel like I’m hitting a lot of good shots, which is nice,” said Boutier, who was runner-up at this tournament in 2022. “Sometimes you envision shots, and it doesn’t always happen. I feel like today a lot happened the way I saw it. It was very positive and I’m very happy with my round.
“I’m just trying to hit as many good shots as possible. I’m trying to stay focused and I feel like this course is pretty challenging with the weather conditions. I’m just trying to hit the best shots possible under the circumstances.
“When you’re playing well, it’s easier to be positive about it. I made a bogey on nine, which also fired me up a little bit. It was nice to get some more energy going. I’m just going to try to hopefully play the same and stick to my game plan and see what happens.
“I’ve definitely been playing well and the fact that I got a good result last week also is giving me a little bit of confidence. I’m just trying to build off of that, and hopefully have a good, solid round tomorrow.”
Three shots behind the leader are Thailand’s Patty Tavatanakit and Sweden’s Maja Stark with the duo on 10-under-par.
Tavatanakit had quite the scorecard with her only bogey coming at the first followed by eagles on the third and 14th holes as well as birdies on five, nine, and 12 for her own round of 66 (-6).
“It was just a good day, everything was solid. I made a lot of putts,” said the Thai star. “I just took it shot by shot and it just happened to turn out really well this week.
“I’m really having fun learning so far, and it is links so anything could happen. If you play well, you also need a bit of luck and it’s been helping me so far.
“I just want to have fun tomorrow and I’m not really thinking about anything and just go out there and play golf like I did today. It was…
..
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Ladies European Tour…