Carlota Ciganda (-13) clears doubts right from the start. The Navarrese has begun 2026 with her hunger intact and her game in perfect condition. So much so that she didn’t want to wait to give herself a first chance at victory. First tournament of the year and first battle to win, positioned in the front row of the stalls. All options intact. She delivered a card of 68 strokes in the third round of the PIF Saudi Ladies International and will start two strokes behind the leaders from the fourth position.
Two heavyweight players lead, such as the Korean Hye Jin Choi (-15), perfectly recovered from yesterday’s setback with a round of 65 strokes, and the Japanese Rio Takeda (-15), who maintains her progression from less to more at the Riyadh Golf Club. Today she made 66 strokes. A bogey on the 18th hole will prevent her from starting tomorrow as the sole leader and has tightened the table even more. The reality is that anything can happen this Saturday in Saudi Arabia.
There are ten players separated by only two strokes. In third place alone is the South African Casandra Alexander (-14), while sharing the fourth position with the Spanish Ciganda are golfers of the calibre of Alison Lee, today 65 strokes, Shannon Tan, Nasa Hataoka, or the sisters Chizzy and Akie Iwai. Even, Charley Hull and Leonie Harm should be included in the fight to win, positioned just one stroke further back at -12, only three from the top. It would be reckless to rule out a golfer with Hull’s prowess, who has yet to have a perfect round.
As for the rest of the Spanish players, Blanca Fernández, Nuria Iturrioz, and Carolina Chacarra are tied at -8 in 22nd place, perfectly poised to attack the top 10 in the final round. Blanca delivered a fantastic card of 67 strokes this Friday. If she achieves something similar tomorrow, she will have many chances to finish among the top ten, a result that would be splendid considering this tournament is a LET major with a prize pool of five million dollars.
Julia López (-5) has also notably improved her performance today and, above all, has shown that she indeed has a very low round stored in her bag. In fact, today she made 69 strokes, with seven birdies and an eagle to her name. Her comeback could have been even better if not for a lethal quadruple bogey on the 11th hole, especially painful considering she was on the fairway.
