Carlota Ciganda (-6) has fallen out of the battle to win the The Annika driven by Gainbridge after carding a 70 in the third round of the tournament. The Navarrese player has lost many positions in the standings, placing fifteenth and, most importantly, she is eight strokes behind the leader, Swedish Linn Grant (-14).
It hasn’t been a good day of golf for Carlota. From the tee, she was brilliant at the Pelican Golf Club in Florida, but with the irons, she was very inconsistent. She only missed two fairways all day, but on the other hand, she left seven greens behind. Even so, she managed to make three good birdies and had some other good chances that slipped away, but she also made three bogeys.
As it stands, Ciganda is not going to win the tournament, it’s become impossible, with fourteen golfers ahead of her, but she still has the chance to achieve a great result that allows her to grow in the Race to CME Globe ahead of next week’s grand finale. A good goal would be to achieve her best-ever result in the LPGA ranking. It’s not easy, but there are still chances. First, she needs a good scorecard this Sunday to try to break into the top 5. She’s four strokes away. Difficult, but not impossible.
Julia López (-3) continues her comeback in Florida. The Malaga native has carded a 67 for the second consecutive day and has moved into the top 30. Obviously, she also has no chance of victory, but she can still dream of qualifying for the grand finale of the Race to CME Globe, a tournament only the top 60 in the ranking can enter. Julia is in 68th place. It’s very challenging. Undoubtedly, she will need the best round of the day, a scorecard full of birdies to give herself a chance. That said, if anyone can achieve a low round, it’s Julia, as she has shown on many occasions. She has nothing to lose. It could be her last round of the year.
Finally, in the battle for victory, right now the big favourite is Linn Grant (-14). She leads alone after posting a great score of 65 on Saturday. She has a one-stroke advantage over American Jennifer Kupcho (-13). Three strokes back are Nataliya Guseva (-11), who posted the best round of the day (63 strokes), and Grace Kim (-11). There’s still a lot to play for. Grant has only won once on the LPGA Tour, and that was two years ago. Meanwhile, a victory for Guseva would be historic. She would become the first Russian (although she competes without a flag due to the sporting sanctions imposed on her country for the invasion of Ukraine) to win on the LPGA Tour.
