Anything can still happen coming into the final round of the Olympics women’s golf tournament.
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She already had lost a three-shot lead in gusts up to 30 miles per hour Friday at Olympic Golf Course.
Lewis made so many birdies she lost count. But on Day 3 she rebounded, carding a 65 before the winds began gusting to 35 miles per hour to earn a spot in Saturday’s final group.
After two terrific rounds of 66 on the opening two days, South Korea’s Inbee Park is the lady to catch at the top of the leaderboard.
Those stars and stripes get her every time.
Park has been nagged for months by a left thumb injury that has kept her off the LPGA tour lately and threatened her participation in the Games.
“I’ve held a lot of golf trophies”, said the victor of 17 tournaments on the LPGA Tour, including seven major championships. “It feels great. It’s just really all I’ve wanted”. New Zealand’s Lydia Ko finished with silver after holing an 8-foot birdie putt on the final hole and China’s Shanshan Feng finished six shots back of Park for bronze.
“At the back of your mind, unless you make a careless mistake to know that you would be able to hold a medal no matter what, I thought, wow, I can’t believe I’m here in this position”, she said. She missed a 5-foot birdie putt on the 16th hole, and then converted birdies on the last two to reach 10-under 132.
Do you think Inbee Park will be wearing the gold medal tomorrow night? I would have loved to have done a dance or jumped up and down but in that situation I was nearly about to cry.
Managing the emotions is part of the task at hand, she said.
“And then she pauses”, said Piller, “and is like, ‘Wow, my daughter is an Olympian.’ It’s pretty cool to hear her say that”. She really brought no expectations, either.
Stacy Lewis went backward.
Chun In-gee of South Korea reacts to a bunker shot on the fifth hole during the third round of the Rio de Janeiro Olympic women’s golf tournament on August 19, 2016.
Gerina Piller, the American who narrowly qualified in her final event, shot a 68 and joined them in the final group, two shots behind.
Russian Maria Verchenova, meanwhile, produced the lowest score of the Olympic Games, men or women, a nine-under par 62 that included a hole-in-one at the 153-yard fourth hole.
This final round, however, was all about Park.
The 21-year-old South Korean player had an 18-under 192 total at Sedgefield, a stroke off the tournament 54-hole record set by Carl Pettersson in his 2008 victory.
Two more birdies on Nos.
Feng experienced an up-and-down period as her LPGA ranking has been down from top 5 to 14 early in 2016.
Meanwhile, world number two Ariya Jutanugarn of Thailand blasted a six-under 65, showing flashes of the form that won her last month’s British Open. Today, 18 holes were just a little bit more steady.
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Ko said she started the third round knowing she had a lot of work to do. “It feels great. Obviously representing your country, winning the gold, it’s so special”.
