Shannon Tan will head into the final round of the Olympics women’s golf competition in tied-36th place after signing for a one-over-par 73 at the Le Golf National on Friday.
The 20-year-old Singaporean, who made history by being Singapore’s first golf Olympian, is 14 shots behind New Zealand’s Lydia Ko and Switzerland’s Morgane Metraux after they posted rounds of 68 and 71 respectively to share the third round lead.
Tan stumbled early with a double bogey on her first hole but recovered with a birdie on hole five before dropping a shot on the next. After turning in 38, she parred the next three holes before another birdie on 13 brought her back to one-over.
“It’s never ideal to start the round with a double bogey. But I reminded myself that it was not a shot that I could re-do and that there were 17 more holes to play. So, it was still possible to make up for it if I remained focused. The birdie on the 5th hole was a little bounce back and it provided some momentum as well,” said Tan.
Getting the next birdie on her remaining five holes remained elusive and Tan eventually had to settle for a three-day total of five-over-par 221.
“The birdies are definitely very hard to come by on this golf course. The plan was to keep putting it on the green in regulation to give me the best chance,” said Tan, who hit 14 of 18 greens in regulation.
With 18 holes remaining before Tan concludes her maiden Olympic outing in Paris, Tan is now hoping to sign off on a positive note.
“Sticking to the game plan will be the goal for tomorrow. But, it’s also going to be an exciting final round, the atmosphere and crowd have been great all week, so I will also try to take it all in.”
Ends.