“I would like more experience with the USGA, LPGA. Today the putting was feeling good so I can see the light at the end of the tunnel”. The 2007 U.S. Open victor has not finished higher than 10th all season and missed two cuts in her three tournaments leading into this week.
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A 13-time victor already on the LPGA, Ko heads into Sunday at CordeValle the heavy favorite due to her remarkably calm head and consistent play.
Henderson, 18, was grouped with Ko in a battle of teen titans in the first two rounds.
World number one Lydia Ko will take a one-shot lead into the final round of the U.S. Women’s Open.
Lee’s compatriot Amy Yang, American Cristie Kerr and Australia’s Minjee Lee all shot 67s to sit in joint second on five under.
Ko got off to a shaky start with a bogey on the first hole before stringing together four straight birdies starting at No. 3.
Ko says she will be nervous again Sunday trying to win, but she jolted the media center with laughter after being asked how she has learned to handle sleeping on 54-hole leads.
“I just haven’t been able to make any putts the whole year. But I just try and take deep breaths”.
Park, a 22-year-old from South Korea, made her LPGA debut last year when she finished second at the KEB-HanaBank Championship in South Korea. Her last win on the US Tour was in 2014 and she tied for fourth at the Women’s PGA Championship this year.
“I look a lot calmer than what goes on in the inside”, Ko said. “I don’t care how good you strike the ball, if you don’t make a putt you can’t win”.
Just when you thought the pipeline might be exhausted, South Korea delivered yet another young female golf prodigy into majors prominence Friday at the U.S. Women’s Open.
Meanwhile it was left to Hamilton’s Alena Sharp to lead the way for Canada, continuing her great play of late with a two-under-par 70 and a tie for 11th. Ko is World No. 1.
Even though the 18th is reachable in two shots, Ko opted to take three and it paid off when her approach stopped about 9 feet from the hole. Matteo Manassero and Branden Grace (both 67) were in a four-way tie for fourth on 6-under overall.
Following Lydia Ko through the first nine holes gave me that treat. He birdied Nos. 2 and 3, then Nos.
Defending champion In Gee Chun, followed by about a dozen members of the Flying Dumbo fan club wearing shirts that Chun designed, hit back-to-back bogeys on the front nine and finished 1 over. “And it was tough to get near the pins on some holes”. “But because the days are going on and the weather has been really nice, I think it is a lot firmer than what it would have been on a Tuesday morning”. It was sitting in a hole and I didn’t play it well.
“You just never know what’s going to happen”, she said about what her mindset will be on Sunday.
“My birdie on three kind of turned the round around and making the string of birdies definitely helped”. A bogey on 16, her second in a five-hole stretch, put her at 3-over for the tournament and early cut projections were 2-over.
“It’s so windy out there, it wasn’t easy”, said Yang, who has four top-5 finishes in the past six years at the tournament.
“It was a really cool group”, Ko said.
So what kind of golf course is this, what kind of championship is this, who do you trust?
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When Lee walked off the course following her record-tying round and a three shot lead, she described her day with words usually not heard when talking about the U.S. Women’s Open. Yardage: 6,784. Par: 72.
