{"id":779234,"date":"2026-07-04T20:42:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T20:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/779234\/"},"modified":"2026-07-04T20:42:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T20:42:10","slug":"kelsey-bennett-steers-clear-with-18-holes-remaining-at-ladies-european-tour-event-in-belgium-australian-golf-digest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/779234\/","title":{"rendered":"Kelsey Bennett steers clear with 18 holes remaining at Ladies European Tour event in Belgium \u2013 Australian Golf Digest"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australia\u2019s Kelsey Bennett will take a two-shot lead into the final round of the Hulencourt Women\u2019s Open after she fired a three-under-par 69 in the third round to leapfrog Carolina Chacarra at the top of the standings at 10-under-par.<\/p>\n

Two behind the Spanish rookie before the beginning of play, Bennett got off to a strong start birdieing the par-3 second hole to narrow the gap. The ninth hole would soon cause a three-shot swing handing the Aussie a two-shot advantage as Chacarra carded a double-bogey with Bennett birdieing the par-5.<\/p>\n

RELATED: Kelsey Bennett claims biggest win at Australian Women\u2019s Classic<\/a><\/p>\n

With a two-horse race developing at Hulencourt Golf Club, both players would birdie the 10th \u2013 Bennett after dialling in an excellent approach \u2013 before the 26-year-old handed a shot back to her Spanish rival with a bogey at the 11th.<\/p>\n

As the wind picked up in Belgium, a tense back-nine followed with Bennett picking up a birdie at the 15th to reclaim her two-shot lead as Chacarra parred home for a round of two-over 74.<\/p>\n

Bennett is chasing a second win on the Ladies European Tour (LET) after claiming the Australian Women\u2019s Classic on home soil<\/a> in March. She is currently third on the LET Order of Merit \u2013 the highest position of anyone in the field this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a pretty solid day,\u201d\u00a0she said.\u00a0\u201cI actually didn\u2019t really know what the scoreboard was doing, so it\u2019s good to know I\u2019m now two shots clear. Nothing was overly special but nothing was really bad. I was plotting my way around and this course sets up well for my game. The shot on the 10th was very nice. I\u2019ll just keep doing what I\u2019m doing tomorrow.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was pretty breezy out there. Most of it is quite a lot of the cross-breeze, so it\u2019s pretty tricky. If you the miss the fairway and you\u2019re in that long grass, you\u2019re not finding it. I actually had two shots today that went in there and I got blessed as they were not in the long grass! I\u2019ll count my blessings and take them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Chacarra is teeing up in her only second LET event of the season and carded a course-record 65 in the second round. She is the brother of Eugenio, a multiple-time winner on the DP World Tour<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was still a good day today,\u201d\u00a0Chacarra said.\u00a0\u201cIt was definitely tougher with the windy conditions. It was definitely harder. I hit it as close as yesterday, but the putts just didn\u2019t drop. I fought hard out there and am very proud of myself. I\u2019ll try to keep up the momentum tomorrow.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ninth was just a couple of bad shots in a row. Just one bad hole. But there were plenty of good holes and good shots out there. So I\u2019ll try to stay positive and go again tomorrow. I don\u2019t have a score in mind tomorrow but will definitely need to go under par and make as little mistakes as possible. Yesterday\u2019s score definitely gives me confidence. It\u2019s a course I like and there are birdie opportunities out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a tie for third at five-under par sit the duo of Indian Olympians, Aditi Ashok and Diksha Dagar. Using this week\u2019s tournament as preparation for next week\u2019s Amundi Evian Championship, Ashok, a five-time winner on the LET, produced a grandstand finish by birdieing three of her final holes for a round of 70 in testing conditions.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t feel like I had my good stuff today,\u201d\u00a0the Indian said.\u00a0\u201cBut I was able to roll in a couple of long putts coming in, so it ended up good.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s my first time to Belgium. I\u2019ve always struggled at Evian and I figured out it\u2019s because I always go straight there from the US. I felt like getting to Europe earlier this year to get on the same time zone. A week before might be helpful and of course it\u2019s always nice to be back on the LET.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dagar, a two-time LET winner, carded a round of 71 in Belgium to remain five shots adrift of the leading total.<\/p>\n

Thailand\u2019s Trichat Cheenglab, winner of the 2023 Order of Merit, sits alone in fifth heading into the final round at three-under-par. Ireland\u2019a Anna Foster, England\u2019s Bronte Law and Switzerland\u2019s Morgane Metraux share sixth on two-under.<\/p>\n

Englishwoman Lianna Bailey matched Bennett\u2019s round of the day (69) to move into ninth at one-under alongside recent LET winner, Smilla Tarning Soenderby from Denmark. The 25-year-old was victorious at the MCB Ladies Classic \u2013 Mauritius in May.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, major winner Georgia Hall continued her comeback trail after having a baby boy, Conor, earlier this year. The Englishwoman carded a round of one-under 71 in the third round to move to T-16.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australia\u2019s Kelsey Bennett will take a two-shot lead into the final round of the Hulencourt Women\u2019s Open after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":779235,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[73538,64,63,369100,755,369101,369102,258338,28635,85],"class_list":["post-779234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-aditi-ashok","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-carolina-chacarra","tag-golf","tag-hulencourt-golf-club","tag-hulencourt-womens-open","tag-kelsey-bennett","tag-ladies-european-tour","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/779234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=779234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/779234\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/779235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=779234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=779234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=779234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}