The marathon Saturday at the FM Championship of the LPGA in Boston, where 72 players had to complete almost the entirety of their second round and then immediately play the third, positioned Chinese golfer Miranda Wang (-18) as the main favourite for victory. The rookie on the tour signed a sensational card of 65 strokes to lead alone with a three-stroke advantage over Sei Young Kim (-15) and Rose Zhang (-15).
Wang completed an impeccable day, with 27 consecutive holes without a single bogey. She added a brilliant statistic on the greens, needing only 24 putts on a rain-softened course to finish her third round. She closed her round with a birdie on the 18th, which will allow her to face the final round this Sunday with greater confidence in search of what would be her first victory on the tour, after two top-10 finishes to date.
In addition to her two immediate pursuers, she must also keep an eye on players like Jeeno Thitikul (-14) or Andrea Lee (-14), four strokes behind on a more receptive course due to Friday’s downpour, where a good score can be made. Slightly further back are other names like Kumkang Park (-13), Ayaka Furue (-13), and Celine Borge (-13), still with chances. Unfortunately, this is not the case for either of the two Spanish players who made the cut…
After the pending rounds were completed early on Saturday, Julia López (-7) confirmed what seemed certain: she would continue playing over the weekend. She took advantage of this with a great round of 68 strokes, her best of the week, with an eagle, three birdies, and a bogey, climbing the leaderboard to be among the top 25. Her main goal for the final 18 holes of the tournament is to fight for a top 10, which is just three strokes away.
Azahara Muñoz (-6), unfortunately, could not maintain her flawless birdie rhythm from the first two rounds and with a round of 74 strokes, two over par, she definitively fell out of the fight for victory. She is tied in the 30th position on the leaderboard, four strokes from the top 10. A pity after the two extraordinary rounds of 68 strokes with which she had started a tournament where she was tied for third after Friday’s interruption.
