Nelly Korda will take a one-shot lead over fellow American Danielle Kang into the final round of the HSBC Women’s World Championship at Sentosa Golf Club.
Korda fired a 65 in today’s third round for a 54-hole total of 15-under-par 201 at Sentosa’s New Tanjong Course, while halfway leader Kang dropped a shot at the last hole to sign in a 70. Canada’s Brooke Henderson and Australia’s Minjee Lee are four shots off the lead.
With elder sister Jessica winning in Thailand last week, Korda will be looking to looking to make it back-to-back wins for her family and match the feat achieved by Annika and Charlotta Sorenstam in 2000.
“I was hitting the correct shots. I was aggressive when I needed to be, so I’m just happy with the way it ended and really looking forward to tomorrow,” said Korda, 19. “There’s so many great girls bunched up on the leaderboard close to my score. It’s going to be a tough one tomorrow, but I’m just going to be taking it shot by shot.”
Kang was unable to repeat the heroics of Friday when she shot 64, posting a modest two-under-par 70. With the pressure set to build on Sunday, the Major winner knows how to close out a tournament and is well placed for a grandstand finish.
“I wasn’t really thinking about whether I was going to be in the lead tomorrow or chasing, but Nelly had a really solid game today. She played really well. She shot seven-under. Any time you shoot seven-under, you play well. Got 18 more holes to play and that’s a lot of golf,” said Kang.
15-year-old Thai amateur Atthaya Thitikul moved from 23rd to tied 12th place and now leads the four-strong contingent from Thailand.
“Pretty good start. A lot of times I nearly made bogey but I managed to make par and it’s really good. My driving isn’t good but other things are good and I’m happy with my results,” said Thitikul.
