Jenny slides to fourth with even-par 72

From flawless to flawed.

A day after firing a bogey-free 65, Jennifer Rosales groped for form and needed to birdie two of her last four holes to salvage an even-par 72 yesterday, dropping from second to fourth in the third round of the rich ANZ Ladies Masters at the Royal Pines Golf Club course in Gold Coast, Australia.

Fancied Annika Sorenstam matched Rosales’ fiery halfway round and surged past four players, including the ace Filipina shotmaker, in a flash, pooling a 54-hole aggregate of 204 heading into the final round of the $800,000 event.

That was five shots ahead of Rosales, whose 209 dropped her in the company of Grace Lee of Korea, who shot a 69, and behind second round leader Karen Stupples of England (70-205) and Aussie Anne Marie Knight (69-206).

"The whole game was a struggle today," said Rosales. "I couldn’t feel my swing. Ang lakas ng hangin, so it’s hard enough to get the proper club to use."

In contrast, Sorenstam was in her element, gunning down birdies with remarkable resolve from a series of superb approach shots that underscored the form that made her the world’s No. 1 player in her breed.

Successive bogeys from No. 4, where she hooked her drive into a stymied lie, and at the par-3 No. 5, where she dumped her tee shot into the greenside bunker, slowed down the five-time RP Ladies Open champion, who had hoped for a big follow-up to her seven-birdie splurge just a day before.

But Rosales, now a PLDT Global endorser, flashed some kind of resiliency as she birdied Nos. 7 and 9, only to find herself dropping another pair of strokes, including on No. 10 where she was just about 100 yards off the green and needed another wedge shot to reach it.

She again birdied Nos. 15 and 17 to get back into the thick of things although she would need to firm up her game and stay focused on the task at hand if she is to nail her first-ever career win as a pro in the international front.

"The first few holes, she had good looks at birdie but missed. Nawala tuloy ang confidence," said Rosales’ swing guru Bong Lopez. "Pero di bale, me one round pa naman, baka makabawi. —With Dante Navarro