By: Max Bechtoldt
When Switzerland’s Morgane Metraux stepped onto the 18 tee, her head had to be spinning a bit. The third round leader had struggled through much of her third round, particularly on the back nine where she bogeyed 10, 12 and 13, and now sat two back of New Zealand’s Lydia Ko. But a lot can change in a few minutes.
After striping a tee shot on the reachable par 5 18, and hitting a gorgeous approach over the water, Metraux poured an eagle putt in the center of the cup to grab a share of the lead.
Ko’s round was a lot more steady than her playing partner’s. Ko made just two bogeys to go along with four birdies in route to a -4 68. This great play despite arguably Ko’s biggest strength, chipping, losing her strokes on the field. Lydia found solid work out of her driver though, a traditional weakness, and predictably putted terrific.
The two currently sit at -9 for the tournament, two strokes ahead of Rose Zhang of Team USA and Japan’s Miyu Yamashita. Colombia’s Mariajo Uribe, one of the most exciting players of the week, playing in her final professional event, is at -5. Then a group of USA’s Nelly Korda, France’s Celine Boutier and Xiyu Lin and Ruoning Yin of China are all at -4. My bet is the three medalists will come from this group.
The final round kicks off once again at 3 a.m. est. on Golf Channel and Peacock. Likely the groups in contention will be off sometime around 5:00.
