The British threat fell by the wayside as Brazilian teenager Angela Park birdied her final three holes for a third round 68 and set her sights on a maiden LPGA victory at the Evian Masters in France.
However, Mhairi McKay, with a 69, and Rebecca Hudson and Becky Brewerton, with matching rounds of 71, were all on one under par - a distant 13 shots behind 19-year-old Park.
Park, last year's LPGA Tour Rookie of the Year, showed her growing maturity as she birdied the final three holes for a 14 under par 202 total and a one-stroke lead over Taiwan's Candie Kung, who had a joint best of day 67.
Helen Alfredsson, the popular 43-year-old Swede, was in second place at halfway, but she had a rollercoaster 71 - five birdies and four bogeys - and slipped back into fourth place on 10 under par.
Another veteran, 48-year-old American Juli Inkster, who won the title in 2002, was in third place on 11 after a 69 and she could become the oldest LPGA winner if she does claim the title for a second time on Sunday.
But world number one Lorena Ochoa, who defends the women's British Open at Sunningdale this week, dropped to six shots off the lead after a 70, and two-time former winner Annika Sorenstam was 11 strokes behind after a disappointing 73.
Park, who lives in Florida, had a career best of joint second in last year's US Women's Open and has had another two top fives in majors
In a third round that started in glorious sunshine and ended in rain, she staged a great birdie finale, including rolling a putt in from 10 feet at the long 18th to snatch the lead.
"I just know I have to be patient," said Park of her desire breakthrough win.
"I played pretty mediocre at the start but told myself to not to hurry anything and it paid off.
"I surprised myself by coming back so strong. But it was great that I managed to stay so positive."
Collated third round scores & totals in the LPGA Tour, Evian Masters, Evian Masters Golf Club, Evian-les-Bains, France
(USA & Kor unless stated, par 72):
202 Angela Park (Bra) 66 68 68
203 Candie Kung (Tai) 66 70 67
205 Juli Inkster 67 69 69
206 Helen Alfredsson (Swe) 72 63 71
207 Na Yeon Choi 71 67 69, Shi Hyun Ahn 69 69 69
208 Paula Creamer 70 69 69, Jin Joo Hong 71 69 68, Cristie Kerr 70 66 72, Lorena Ochoa (Mex) 65 73 70
209 Meena Lee 67 69 73, Eun Hee Ji 71 71 67, Hee Young Park 70 69 70
210 Ya-Ni Tseng 70 70 70, Suzann Pettersen (Nor) 67 74 69
211 Sun Young Yoo 74 68 69, In Kyung Kim 68 68 75, Laura Diaz 67 73 71, Amy Yang 68 73 70
212 Natalie Gulbis 69 71 72
213 Ji-Yai Shin 72 73 68, Sun Ju Ahn 66 74 73, Teresa Lu (Tai) 71 71 71, Momoko Ueda (Jpn) 70 69 74, Young Kim 68 71 74, Annika Sorenstam (Swe) 71 69 73, Morgan Pressel 69 72 72
214 Linda Wessberg (Swe) 69 71 74, Lindsey Wright (Aus) 72 73 69, Jimin Kang 71 71 72, Maria Hjorth (Swe) 73 69 72
215 Giulia Sergas (Ita) 71 74 70, Song-Hee Kim 69 72 74, In-Bee Park 69 72 74, Diana D'Alessio 73 71 71, Becky Brewerton 72 72 71, Christina Kim 72 70 73, Rebecca Hudson (Eng) 72 72 71, Mhairi McKay (Sco) 72 74 69
216 Ji-Young Oh 70 71 75, Ai Miyazato (Jpn) 74 72 70, Se Ri Pak 70 76 70, Carin Koch (Swe) 73 74 69, Trish Johnson 70 75 71, Karine Icher (Fra) 74 70 72
217 Mi-Hyun Kim 71 73 73, Angela Stanford 67 72 78, Sophie Gustafson (Swe) 73 70 74, Pat Hurst 74 73 70
218 Karrie Webb (Aus) 72 75 71, Meaghan Francella 70 72 76, Sarah Lee 71 73 74, Katherine Hull (Aus) 72 72 74
219 Minea Blomqvist (Fin) 74 69 76, Wendy Doolan (Aus) 77 68 74, Jane Park 74 74 71, Brittany Lang 73 73 73, Jeong Jang 74 73 72
220 Sherri Steinhauer 72 74 74, Hwa seon Lee 69 75 76, Julieta Granada (Par) 72 73 75, Hye Jung Choi 73 73 74
221 Laura Davies (Eng) 71 77 73, Rachel Hetherington (Aus) 75 71 75
222 Hee-Won Han 72 74 76, Nicole Castrale 74 74 74
224 Sophie Giquel (Fra) 71 76 77, Catrin Nilsmark (Swe) 70 73 81
225 Emma Zackrisson (Swe) 72 75 78, Martina Eberl (Ger) 75 72 78
Walk in the park for VfB
MORGAN 25th AS OH CLAIMS PLAY-OFF WIN
