Laura Davies, who twice won the title in its previous guise as the Evian Masters, was the leading Briton on 69, a fine birdie at the last keeping her just about in sight of the leaders.
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Ko and Ariya have a good chance at Evian of taking the Annika Major Award, which rewards the major victor with the best combined record at all five majors of the season, and is named after 10-time major victor Annika Sorenstam.
New Zealand’s world No. 1 carded two bogeys and a birdie in her 70. “Because it puts too much pressure on me”. She sliced her second shot into woods, found it, but deemed it unplayable.
Chun’s first major victory came in last year’s US Open, although she failed to make the cut in the defense of her title in July.
“It’s a good thing my wood shots and chip shots were good enough”, said Ko, who a year ago became the youngest man or woman to be ranked No. 1.
There is a major drop off in terms of the sports betting odds following Ko and Jutanugarn at the top of the board but there are some excellent value matchups to bet in terms of the head-to-head ranks. She played in a pair of tournaments in 2015, including the Yokohama Tire LPGA Classic where she tied for 41st with a 3-under 285.
There are only four players that still have a chance to win the Rolex Annika Major Award, which recognizes the player with the best performance in the majors.
Another birdie followed at 16, and the 22-year-old parred in to stay four clear of Sung Hyun Park as no fewer than five South Koreans featured in the top seven places by the close of play.
“I love the set up of the course, it suits me very well”.
“To begin with it was the same hotel room every week, you know getting stuck with the same chains and it’s all so similar, I wasn’t sure for a bit. There’s plenty of reason to be confident, I just need to get it in the hole”.
Jutanugarn leads the LPGA Tour with five wins this year, and all of those have been won without using a driver.
“I always try not to think about winning”, said Chun, who missed the cut here previous year. “So, no driver this week”.
South Korean So Yeon Ryu, who has been remarkably consistent with only one bogey in three rounds – on her 10th hole on Saturday – was seven shots behind Chun in fourth place. “She keeps things light and does some dances out there”. “But it’s going to take a little time”. “So, previously, not many people were paying attention to golf”.
“I think it’s cool that we three young ones are up there in the rankings”.
“The others didn’t say anything”.
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“Yeah, it might have taken me about six months to break 80”, she said. Maybe I was missing out on something, it didn’t feel right.
