Heading into the final day of the PIF Saudi Ladies International, two LPGA Tour stars, Hye-Jin Choi and Rio Takeda, share the lead at -15.
Takeda, a two-time winner on the LPGA Tour, shot her second round in a row of -6 after a decent -3 first round. Takeda has only had three bogeys on the week, including the final hole of her third round.
The highlight of the day, and the week, for Takeda was on the par 5 12th, where a shot that appeared headed for the bunker, somehow skipped up perfectly onto the green, leaving a putt for eagle in make range. She buried the putt to get to -5 for the day and firmly in contention to win.
Overall, Takeda had five birdies, the eagle and the bogey on 18 to vault up the leaderboard.
Choi found some consistency after a relatively tough second round where she had three bogeys and just three birdies. She nearly matched her first round 64 with a 65 on Friday.
Choi was exceptional with her ball striking, hitting 13 fairways and 16 greens. After a rough day of putting Thursday, which included a three-putt bogey and just five one putts, she was in much better form Friday with only 28, including no three putts. For the day, she made seven birdies and didn’t drop any shots.
While Takeda and Choi are out front, the leaderboard is deep and stacked, including LPGA Tour winners Akie Iwai, Nasa Hataoka, Carlota Ciganda, Chizzy Iwai and Charley Hull all within three strokes. 2025 LET Player of the Year Shannon Tan is also in contention, just two strokes back.
