Spain’s Luna Sobron Galmes and England’s Charlotte Heath sit tied at the top of the leaderboard on 16-under-par with one round left to play at the 2026 Aramco China Championship.
Related: Liqi Zeng leads tight leaderboard in China
Sobron was in a share of second place overnight and fired a round of 68 (-5) on the World Cup Course on day three.
The Spaniard made her first birdie on the second hole before a dropped shot on the fourth, she then made back-to-back birdies on holes five and six.
Sobron made another birdie on eight before a pair of birdies on holes 10 and 11, another dropped shot on 15 was soon forgotten with a birdie on 17.
The 32-year-old co-leads on 16-under-par with 18 holes to play and is in search of her maiden Ladies European Tour (LET) title.
“I’m very happy. I’m playing good, so being on the top is a good position for tomorrow. I am playing with a strategy and it’s good,” said Sobron.
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“This heat is too much! Mallorca is like this, but at these hours I am not playing. I am playing in the morning or afternoon on the golf course. I like the course, I like the greens, I like that you can move the ball. I feel comfortable in this course and last week was a warm-up.
“Of course I want to win. I am a player and a professional. You want to win every time. Yes, it’s in my mind but if you feel comfortable doing the process and everything, it will come. I’m waiting for this win, so maybe this week, maybe next week or next year. I’m doing good things, I’m playing good.”
England’s Heath was bogey-free on the third day of action in China making birdies at the fifth and 10th holes.
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The LET rookie then rolled in three consecutive birdies to finish her round in style and move to the top of the leaderboard alongside Sobron on -16.
“It was another good round,” said the 2026 La Sella Open champion. “There’s a lot of low score that are going to come in, so I still need a good one tomorrow. I felt like I should have been more under par sooner in the round, I was skimming the holes, but the putts finally dropped.
“I haven’t been thinking about Rookie of the Year. I don’t find it helpful to think about those things. I just need to play good and if the golf is good, it sorts itself out. This is a nicer feeling to be honest. In La Sella, I think I played 29 holes one day and then took the next day off. It’s not nice for momentum. You just feel really uncomfortable all the time, this feels a lot nicer.”
England’s Mimi Rhodes is in solo third place just one shot behind the leading duo after a round of 68 (-5).
The three-time LET winner only dropped shot one shot on the 13th hole making birdies on the second, sixth, 10th, 11th and 15th holes.
“It was probably a bit rocky today, but you’re going to have a bad day out of four days. I still struck the ball pretty well. I didn’t have my A-game, I still managed to shoot four-under, so hopefully tomorrow I have got it 100%,” said Rhodes. “I was a bit disappointed to miss that one on the last, but you can’t hole them all and I holed a lot of good putts today. Hopefully, tomorrow I can make the putts as well.
“Solheim Cup has definitely helped me control my nerves. Today I could have had a few more bogeys out there than I did, so I’m happy that I’m only one back and still in it. The wins last year have probably helped me as well. I prefer coming from behind, so I’m excited for tomorrow and it’s been a while since I’ve been in contention. I’m looking forward to it.”
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Czechia’s Sara Kouskova is in outright fourth place on 14-under-par after a flawless round of 68 (-5) in Shenzhen.
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“It’s been another very calm and solid day. My only two more exciting moments were on nine and 18 when I needed to save par. Other than that, we were just trying to make putts and some of them dropped, some of them stayed there but it was a good day,” said Kouskova.
