FRISCO, Texas – Two-time Major Champion Minjee Lee gave anyone a first-round bogey-free lead in the week of the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, down 69 on Saturday’s third round, four leads at Jeeno thitikul.
Lee scored 210 after the third round after his second run of Thitikul, who led by himself two days before the start.
Lee, an Australian who lives near Irving, advanced at 2-foot pole on the 12th hole of 405 yards, when Thitikul made his second straight bogey while the fourth day was 76 rounds.
Far from the tree-lined Sahalee outside Seattle, PGA Frisco’s Fields Ranch East is more open at PGA Frisco’s East and is exposed to the always-appearing Texas wind, the strongest of the week. There were gusts of more than 30 mph on Saturday, but the forecast for the final round was almost the same. The temperature was once again in the mid-90s.
The world’s highest-ranked player Nelly Korda called the conditions “cruel” in 72 rounds, starting with a back-to-back bogey but ending with two birdies. She had five birdies and five bogeys and ranked sixth in 218 points and 218 points.
Lee and Thitikul are the only players still on par. Lexi Thompson (75) tied for third place with Hye Jin Choi (72) and Miyu Yamashita (73) after the start of the Santide Ship.
Thitikul, the only birdie of 78 players on the par 3, was usually played in a tailwind, with only 29% of the tees shooting throughout the week. The 13-foot bird was her first day, allowing her to get under 5 years old, better than Lee’s first two.
But Thitikul’s lead went back to back bogey. She pushed a 4-foot pole opportunity in the 383-yard 11th hole, her first 5-foot this week. She then drove into the free throw area on the 12th hole of 417 yards and Lee continued.
Lee won the 2022 U.S. Women’s Open and the 2021 Evian Championship in France in 2021, where he stabilized eight consecutive pars before birding on the ninth hole of 487 yards. Her other birdies were 18 feet at 515 yards, 14 and 1.5 feet at 236 yards PAR-4 15 holes at Bunker Surround.
Thitikul stretched her third bogey into four holes as she stabbed 50 feet in the 14th place.
The semi-retired Thompson hit the fairway on the par 5 on the 517-yard par 5, which was driven to the wind by 207 yards. But her second shot went only 117 yards, showing her caddie that the wind had left her balance and then put her next shot right-wing right-handed, which was a penalty from the triple bogey road. She had another bogey on the second hole that followed, but for the rest of the process there were only two birdies and only one bogey.
Thompson played for the seventh time in 16 games of the season, winning only her only major in the 2014 Kraft Nabisco Championship, but her 13 top five since 2013 was the highest score of all players, and she was in the top 10 of those games.
LPGA rookie Rio Takeda opened with Bogey 6 in the first hole after tied for second place with Lee. Takeda later had a double bogey pair that included a 315-yard par seven, where her drive bent over a green space bunker, which made her pose awkward to get the ball out of the first attempt.
Grace Kim’s best rounds of the day, which included six birdies and two bogeys, rose from the tie to No. 68 and tied for No. 10. Minjee Lee and Andrea (71) have the only other highways.
Kim, of the 11 players who cut 7 points, was six hours before Thitikul and Thitikul and Lee left the first hole at 6:55 a.m. local time.
There is even a hole that Brianna will do in the fourth hole of 150 yards. This is the third year for women’s PGA in the past four years.
