Minjee Lee (-6) leads with authority at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship with 18 holes to go. The Australian golfer has overwhelmed Jeeno Thitikul (-2) with a round of golf that wasn’t even in her sweetest dreams. Simply because it didn’t exist. The third round of the year’s third Major has been even more challenging. The wind has blown stronger, at times exceeding 50 kilometres per hour, as Nelly Korda confessed with a kind of nervous laugh. The greens are getting harder and faster, and the PGA is showing little mercy with the pins. Recoveries around the green, with the wind in favour, are a chimera. It’s like walking a tightrope without a net. Either you hit the perfect shot and then, yes, you can have birdie chances, or it’s guaranteed trouble. There’s little middle ground.
Only three golfers played under par today, and one was in the leading group. That’s why Minjee Lee goes out with a four-shot lead over Thitikul and seven, no less, over the third place. You can’t say half the KPMG is in her pocket, as no one guarantees she won’t face the downside tomorrow, but she certainly has a great chance to win her third Major. Initially, it should be a head-to-head between Min Woo Lee’s sister and Thitikul, but if both fail, which can’t be ruled out, it could be a real shake-up.
Minjee Lee shot 69. In any case, it’s an extraordinary round, but even more so considering she didn’t make a single mistake. It’s the only bogey-free round of the day. The reason is that she played a textbook round, putted long putts like no one else, and understood wonderfully the few shots around the green she needed. Her golf was spectacular today. A display. In fact, she really only struggled twice to save par, with two putts of barely two metres. Simply incredible.
In contrast, Thitikul lost the magic on the greens this Saturday and, above all, from the tee. It was a disaster with the driver, barely hitting half the fairways, one of the worst of the day, and got into a lot of trouble. Hence that round of 76 shots that lost all the advantage she had in favour of Minjee. She still has time to recover the lost ground, but first, she will have to go through the practice field to regain the best feelings from the tee. Otherwise, it will be impossible to compete for the victory.
Of course, you have to give chances to those at +1 and +2, although they are in the hands of the top two. If they make a par round, they have the tournament won. Initially, the weather forecast is the same for Sunday. The wind is blowing hard again. And the PGA won’t be more merciful than it was today by setting a shorter course. So, it seems impossible to see a leading round better than -3… and that’s a lot.
The other two players who signed under-par results are Grace Kim (+3), author of an impressive round of 68 shots, and Andrea Lee (+6), who shot 71. Both went out in the early matches. They came from -7. As said, Minjee Lee’s round is the unicorn round. Kim, with her round of 68, went from being in the lower part of the leaderboard to entering the top 10. Minjee Lee will seek her third Major this Sunday after the Evian 2021 and the US Open 2022. Thitikul hasn’t won any yet.
Another comeback of the day was for Azahara Muñoz (+6). The player from Málaga delivered the fourth-best card of the day. Par result. Sensational. She reconnected with the best feelings on the greens, to the point that her round could have been even better. Yesterday she fought like a warrior, as she defined herself, to make the cut, and the reward was a comeback to almost enter the top 25. Her bunker shot on the 18th hole to save par is one for the books. She almost holed it from about 20 metres. Spectacular. Since 2015, she has only finished in the top 20 in the Majors once. Tomorrow she will have the opportunity to improve that statistic.
Julia López (+9) delivered a card of 75 shots and still gained more than ten positions. Par today at Field Ranch East PGA Frisco was around +4. The player from Málaga, however, managed to overcome a poor start. She began with a double bogey and bogey on the first two holes. From there, she signed a great par result.
The one who had a day to forget was Carlota Ciganda (+13). She shot 82. As if suddenly all the fatigue from last Sunday’s victory had come over her. She hit a very bad shot on the 4th hole, and from there, she couldn’t recover.
