Saso cards 67 in third round, climbs to 20th place
TOKYO—YUKA Saso found her rhythm in the third round on Friday, submitting a four-under 67 to move up the leaderboard in the women’s golf competition of the Tokyo Olympics at the Kasumigaseki Country Club.
Saso, 20, showed some of the form that won her a historic US Women’s Open title and nailed five birdies including her last two on the eighth and ninth holes after she teed off in the back nine.
She had a lone bogey on the 10th.
The birdie-birdie finish pushed Saso from joint 34th at the start of the day to a tie for 20th place on a four-under 209 with one round left to play in her Olympic debut.
The Jakarta 2018 Asian Games double gold winner, however, stood 11 shots off the fiery pace set by American Nelly Korda, who followed a 62 with a 69 and still remained three shots clear of the field on a 15-under 198 total.
Indian youngster Aditi Ashok was in second spot at 12-under 201 after a 68 while tied for third at 10-under are Lydia Ko of New Zealand (66), Hannah Green of Australia (67), Mone Imami of Japan (68) and Dane Emily Pedersen (70).
Bianca Pagdanganan, on the other hand, blew a hot start with two double bogeys and a bogey in a sloppy back nine and settled for a second straight 71—good for a share of 29th place with two others at 209.
The 23-year-old Pagdanganan got as low as five-under after three birdies in her first 10 holes, but a combination of bad shots and bad breaks got her coming in.
Korda, meanwhile, had to work for pars instead of making birdies look routine, and the 23-year-old American did well enough to keep her distance in pursuit of an Olympic gold medal.
Korda saved par with a fivefoot putt on the 17th hole and then got up-and-down from behind the 18th with a nifty pitch to 4 feet to finish with 12 straight pars at a two-under 69.
She had a three-shot lead over Aditi Ashok of India, who is nearly last in the 60-player field in driving distance and near the top in sheer determination. She had a 68.