AP Photo/Jed Jacobsohn
After her very best performance of the weekend Saturday, Lexi Thompson is one spherical away from winning the 2021 U.S. Females’s Open.
Thompson is in sole possession of the lead with a 54-gap score of seven underneath par. The American star finished with a 66 in the third spherical, the bottom score of any participant in the discipline.
Yuka Saso, who started the third spherical atop the leaderboard, fell one internet page to second save. She finished with a very good-par 71 and is one shot in the help of Thompson.
2021 U.S. Females’s Open Leaderboard
1. Lexi Thompson (-7)
2. Yuka Saso (-6)
T3. Megha Ganne (-3)
T3. Jeongeun Lee6 (-3)
5. Shanshan Feng (-2)
T6. Nasa Hataoka (-1)
T6. Megan Khang (-1)
8. Inbee Park (E)
T9. Angel Yin (+1)
T9. Hyo Joo Kim (+1)
T9. Maja Stark (+1)
Corpulent leaderboard could well also be stumbled on at USGA.org.
Thompson played her first bogey-free spherical of the match Saturday. The 26-year-used had five birdies, together with three on the entrance nine. She also hit nine of 14 fairways and 13 of 18 greens in law.
“I struck it smartly all day, made a pair of factual putts on the market,” Thompson stated of her performance after the spherical. “And I insist possible upright picking up the ignored fairways or ignored greens when I did, getting up-and-down or upright getting it as some distance as I’d out of that rough.”
Saso finds herself looking out up at Thompson after struggling on the help nine.
Having fun with in neutral her second predominant match, Saso made the flip at one underneath for the day. She wound up ending one over on her last nine holes attributable to a pair bogeys, together with two straight on Nos. 13 and 14.
At one point, Saso did lead by as many as three photos after a birdie on No. 10:
The two ideal changes for Saso on Saturday when in contrast with the previous two days were her struggles to get on the green and convert her alternatives when she bought there.
Saso’s 10 greens in law were her fewest of the match to this point. She also hit 28 putts, her most in a single spherical this weekend.
No other participant is within four photos of the lead heading into the last spherical. Megha Ganne, the 17-year-used amateur, is quiet in contention at three underneath. She did possess her worst score of the match Saturday with a one-over 72.
Ganne’s struggles can truly be boiled right down to 2 holes. She bogeyed Nos. 10 and 11 after ending the entrance nine with a 34.
There are only seven avid gamers underneath par at this point in the match. Thompson has an out of doors shot at tying the all-time myth low score at the U.S. Females’s Open of 11 underneath if she has an indispensable Sunday performance.
More indispensable for Thompson, although, will possible be combating off Saso as she appears to be like to be to end out her second occupation victory in a predominant match.
Thompson and Saso will tee off in the last pairing Sunday at 1: 35 p.m. ET.
