PHOTO – In Gee Chun; credit Evian ChampionshipWritten and released by Lali Stander on behalf of the Sunshine Ladies Tour and WPGA.
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Chun has had top-10 finishes in her last three events on the LPGA Tour, and admits that playing in golf’s reintroduction to the Olympic Games in Rio last month has helped her attitude. But Ko improved on her way back to the clubhouse with a bogey and four birdies – including a brilliant chip in from the edge of the green on the fifth for one of the shots of the day.
So her classy opening 69 at Evian-les-Bains today should shock nobody as the quietly spoken Queenslander sat T15 after the opening round of the year’s final women’s major championship.
Chun In Gee extended her lead to four strokes with a third-round 65 to move to 19 under at the Evian Championship in France. On the eve of her defense, the New Zealander teenager said: “I’m going to do my best to get the trophy back this week”.
“I tried to hit driver on Monday”, she said, “but I’m not really (feeling) comfortable because this course is really narrow and it’s not that long to me to hit driver, so no driver this week”.
This year, another young player emerged into contention on her tournament debut.
Su Oh added a second consecutive 71 Saturday to be 2-over for the week and T51, Minjee Lee one shot worse and T57.
China’s Shanshan Feng, who placed third here past year, will be in confident mood after her bronze medal at the Rio Olympics.
In Gee Chun, last year’s U.S. Open champion and the current world No. 7, has stormed to a two-stroke lead.
Brooke Henderson of Canada is tied for 10th at six under with Gerina Piller, but a distant 13 shots off the lead. “I was making up and downs”.
Chun’s three-day total of 19-under par 194 breaks the 54-hole scoring record (199 set by Annika Sorenstam at the 2004 LPGA Championship) and already ties the 72-hole record in relation to par previously set by four different players.
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But Chun is trying not to think about the history at stake, also having a chance to set a record winning major score which presently stands at 19-under for women and 20-under for men. The 26-year-old former Stetson player, 31st on the Web.com Tour regular-season money list, bogeyed the ninth, birdied the 12th and eagled the par-5 16th.
