Davies has leading edge

An eagle at the final hole helped Britain's Laura Davies increase her overnight lead to three strokes following a third round of 69 in the Evian Masters here yesterday, writes Bill Johnson from Evian.

Davies finished the day with a 12-under-par aggregate to hold off a determined Swedish challenge. She finished three ahead of Catrin Nilsmark with Annika Sorenstam one stroke further behind on 208. Alison Nicholas remains in contention on 209.

Davies started badly with a double-bogey six at the first hole and was soon overtaken by Nilsmark. By the ninth, however, she was back in contention and her short game saved her at both the 16th and 17th, before she asserted her authority with a putt of 25 feet for an eagle three at the last hole.