Carlota Ciganda, for her first top 10 of the year

Carlota Ciganda offered two very different versions on the third day of the Honda PGA, held in Chonburi (Thailand), scoring for the LPGA, the greatest circuit on the planet. On the 11th tee, after having played nine fabulous holes, in 31 strokes, and despite not having achieved them in either the 1 or the 10, two par 5s where he usually has an advantage, his card reflected five under par.

She was one stroke away from the Danish, and partner in the Solheim Cup, Nanna Koerstz Madsen, who leads the tournament after the day of the movement with 21 under par with one advantage over Xiyu Lin and Boutier. The Navarrese, winner of the Andalucia Open on the Ladies European Tour in the fall, was running as a contender to fight for victory on Sunday. Only the Mexican Gaby López and the American Lucy Li, with 64 at the end, had come close with 32 strokes in the first 9 holes. But Madsen and Ciganda described radically different trajectories.

While the Nordic played the last 9 holes in 32 strokes (-4), Carlota did it in 40, with three bogeys, a double bogey and a birdie on the last hole that softened the blow. The final 71 removes him from the fight for victory – he is nine strokes away – and he will have to aspire to a smaller prize, although valuable. A place among the top 10 would give her the first top 10 of the season and allow her to climb up the world rankings where she is forty-ninth, when before the pandemic she was fifteenth in a table in which she became ninth in the world. .