Her 70 today was enough to edge her in front of two South Koreans, yesterday’s leader Sung Hyun Park and Ji Eun-hee, by a single shot.
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The round gives her a three-shot lead over Cristie Kerr, Minjee Lee and Amy Yang and a four-shot lead over Kelly Tan, Brittany Lang and Anna Nordqvist.
This was her fourth career round in the 60s in a U.S. Women’s Open, but the first time she’s done it in either prior to the weekend.
“I played so good out there today”, she stated.
Among the players who missed the cut at 4 over were last year’s victor In Gee Chun, 2014 U.S. Open champion Michelle Wie and 1998 victor Se Ri Pak. “Why am I not able to control my hands?'” Ko said. “There’s not really anything better than doing that in the game that I love so just try to enjoy my day”. But I still played – I thought there were so many positives, you know, from that final round at Sahalee (where she lost the Women’s PGA Championship to Brooke Henderson). “You just never know”.
Players who teed off before 9 a.m. enjoyed ideal, windless conditions and greens that were still holding approach shots. She has broken par all three rounds with a 69 and 71 in the first two rounds followed by the 2-under performance on Saturday. Yang had six birdies and one bogey.
“It changes a lot”, she said. Her tie for 12th past year is her best finish in the championship. If she wins on Sunday she’ll be the youngest three-time major victor – ever. I’m still hitting it good. “I want my mom’s cooking, and that’s it”.
New Zealander Lydia Ko fired a two-under 70 at the U.S. Women’s Open to move into the outright lead.
But an errant tee shot at the ninth proved to be disastrous for Park and it took her five strokes just to get to the green, where she converted a long two-putt to salvage double bogey. Park shot 37 on the back nine to stay in contention.
U.S. Open champion Dustin Johnson withdrew from the Rio Games because of concerns over the Zika virus, costing golf three of the world’s top four players for its return to the Olympics after a 112-year absence. “There’s still one more round going on, and it’s great that I had this experience to come out here to the U.S. Open”.
Lang made a strong move up the leaderboard, with her 68 the best score of the day.
She did not mention that she only recently had a cortisone shot in her left wrist, which was revealed to Golfweek by her longtime coach, David Leadbetter. The 38-year-old from Miami with 18 LPGA Tour victories has had one of her toughest years on tour, playing in 16 prior tournaments with just one top 10. I made a couple of mistakes on the back nine club-wise and aiming-wise, really.
“I think everything was good”, Lee said. But I’m very happy with 4 under. I was super excited to be there playing the championship.
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She sure made it look that way when she became the fifth golfer to shoot a round of 8-under par on Thursday, making 10 birdies on the way to a 64 to take the first-round lead at CordeValle in San Martin, Calif.
