The putts just aren’t dropping for Salas. This time her ball stays stubbornly high on the left, and she remains at -5. Jutanugarn meanwhile hits a dreadful chip eight feet past the flag, and she can’t make the one coming back. A bogey on a hole tailor-made for her power. She’s not birdied it all week! The 11th is potentially costing her this tournament. Mind you, Green misses her par putt too, and I wonder if the nerves are really kicking in. That’s three short-ish putts missed in a row. Throw in her wild driving, and the mishit with the hybrid, and it’s looking a bit shaky for Green all of a sudden, despite her remaining in a two-shot lead. Closing out a major championship isn’t easy.
-9: Green (11)
-7: S Park (11), Korda (11)
-6: S Kim (11), Jutanugarn (11)
Jutanugarn, concerned, with the green sloping away from her, doesn’t commit to a splash out of the bunker. Her ball snags in the second cut around the green. She’s now got a task to get up and down for par. Green meanwhile doesn’t get her chip close, a poor effort bundled up to six feet, very missable in these pressurised circumstances.
Green gets the hybrid out, and mishits it. The ball squirts out of the rough and scampers down the fairway, not the worst result considering. Her third lands right by the flag, but she’s imparted no spin and it scampers over the back of the green. She’ll have a 30-foot putt from the fringe for birdie. Most likely she’ll be escaping with par. Jutanugarn meanwhile crashes two 3-woods down the hole, and she’s in a greenside bunker for two. Salas, not out of this yet at -5, is on in regulation, with a 15-foot putt for her birdie.
A spot of bother for Green at the par-five 11th, as she hooks her tee shot into the thick rough on the left. She’s 74th out of 80 players for driving accuracy right now. Given she’s three clear of the field, that’s testament to the power of her short game. Up on the green, last year’s champion Park Sung-hyun gets up and down from sand to move into a share of second. This is a staunch defence of her title. Meanwhile her playing partner Nelly Korda misreads an eight footer for birdie, failing to factor in a gentle left-to-right curl.
-10: Green (10)
-7: S Park (11), Korda (11), Jutanugarn (10)
Reid cuts the corner of the dogleg at 16 with a fine drive, then spins an iron to 15 feet. She’s left with a straight uphill putt, but fails to hit it. A great chance to move to -6 spurned. She swishes the air with her putter in frustration, knowing full well that every opportunity is so precious now, if she’s to apply any scoreboard pressure on Green from the clubhouse. She remains -5.
Salas is so close to making her birdie putt from 25 feet. Her star-spangled Titleist slides by on the right, one dimple away from dropping. She gnaws on a nail in theatrical frustration. She remains five behind Green, who can’t convert her birdie chance. The iron in deserved better. But she remains three clear of Jutanugarn, who quietly pars.
Green’s approach play has been wonderful all week, and at 10 she arrows another one at the flag. A 7-iron from 150 yards to ten feet. She’ll have a good look at birdie. Salas and Jutanugarn both find the green in regulation, but their birdie putts will be rather more speculative.
Another birdie for Mel Reid! This one comes at 15, and she’s -5 for both the tournament and her round. She’ll be cursing that second-day 76. Without that, a maiden major could have been on the cards. As things stand, she’s most likely a little too far back. But if she posts a score, and the weather closes in, you never know.
-10: Green (9)
-7: Korda (10), Jutanugarn (9)
-6: S Park (10), S Kim (10)
-5: Reid (15), H Kim (11), Kang (10), I Park (10), Salas (9)
Green is going round in the last group with Jutanugarn and Lizette Salas. The 29-year-old Salas isn’t the longest of hitters, so she does well to keep up with her partners as they all crash drives down the middle of 10. She’s level par for her round today, after bogey at 5 and birdie at 8, and is -5 overall. Salas is looking for another high finish at the PGA; she tied for eighth last year.
A first misstep today by the leader. Green’s putter has been hot all week, but it suddenly cools on 9 and a ten-footer for par slips by. That’s only her fourth bogey all week. Not an ideal time to record it, as she reaches the back nine on major-championship Sunday … when anything can happen.
-10: Green (9)
-7: Korda (9), Jutanugarn (9)
Yet another birdie for Nasa Hataoka! This one at 5 brings her up to -1 overall. Pars all the way in, and she’s shooting a 66 that’d go along very nicely with last year’s final-day 64.
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Bogey for Ariya Jutanugarn at the par-three 8th, and this is beginning to look like Hannah Green’s tournament to lose. Green pars, and her lead is now four. Still, major championships don’t really begin until the back nine on Sunday, and the leaders are approaching the turn now. Inbee Park also dropped a stroke on 8 and slipped to -4; her chances of an eighth major this week look pretty slim now.
-11: Green (8)
-7: Korda (8), Jutanugarn (8)
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Pajaree Anannarukarn is making a very impressive major-championship debut. The 19-year-old Thai – younger sister of 2018 LA Open winner Moriya Anannarukarn – has stated her ambition to crack the world top ten, and she’s going about things the right way in her rookie year. Birdies at 1, 2 and now 11 have whisked her up the leader board to -4. She’s just inside the top ten.
No let-up from Hannah Green at the top of the leader board! She extends her lead over Ariya Jutanugarn to three, with a birdie at the par-five 7th. Jutanugarn (who has parred the first seven holes) and Lizette Salas (who dropped a shot at 5) are the only players inside the top ten not to be under par for their rounds today. It’s surprising that Jutanugarn isn’t taking advantage of her length off the tee, but she’s making no in-roads yet.
-11: Green (7)
-8: Jutanugarn (7)
-7: Korda (7)
Nasa Hataoka doesn’t half like the final round of the PGA. Last year she shot a sensational Sunday 64 at Kemper Lakes, a round that hauled her into a three-way play-off with Park Sung-hyun and Ryu So-yeon. She lost out to Park by a shot, but it was a decent day’s work nonetheless. This year something similarly stunning could be afoot: she’s five under for her round through 13, having birdied 11, 15, 17, 1 and now 3. There’ll be no surge to the play-off this year, though, as she’s only level par overall, stuck behind the eight-ball all week after an opening round of 76. But she’s turning a bang-average week into a much better one.
Kim Hyo-joo started her major-championship career with a bang, shooting 61 (!) in the first round of the 2014 Evian Championship as a 19-year-old (!!). She held on to win that tournament, and has continued to perform well in the big ones, having since recorded top-ten finishes in all the other majors, the best of those being last year’s play-off loss to Ariya Jutanugarn at the US Open. She’s going along very nicely today, too, hitting the turn in 33 strokes after birdies at 4, 5 and 9. She’s currently tied for sixth at -5.
-10: Green (6)
-8: Jutanugarn (6)
-7: Korda (7)
-6: S Kim (7), S Park (7)
-5: H Kim (9), Kang (7), I Park (7)
-4: Reid (12), Salas (6)
Nelly Korda’s length should see her right around Hazeltine, one of the longest courses on the LPGA Tour. The weather’s not been great, and with soft fairways and thick rough, it’s playing even longer than usual. Korda is accordingly making hay while the sun doesn’t shine: birdies at 5 and now 7 have moved her to within three of the leader Green at -7.
The biggest mover so far today: England’s Mel Reid. The 31-year-old from Derby doesn’t have a great record in the majors, with a tie for ninth at the 2015 British Open her only notable finish. Last year’s PGA saw her finish in a tie for 60th. But this week is suddenly promising a lot more. It’s been eventful from the get-go: she started out bogey-birdie-bogey-birdie-birdie. Since that loopy run she’s added more birdies at 7, 9 and now 11, and she’s -4 both for her round and the championship.
The players have gone out a little earlier than expected today, the PGA desperate to avoid some incoming inclement weather. They’ve teed off in threesomes, the leading bunch going off at 1, those further down the leader board starting at 10. All of which means there’s already been plenty of action at the top of the leader board. Most importantly, Hannah Green has extended her lead over Ariya Jutanugarn at the top thanks to an early birdie at 2. But some of the pack behind are making a move: Kim Sei-young, Park Sung-hyun, Danielle Kang and Inbee Park are all two under for their rounds so far, nibbling into the advantage Green held over them after 54 holes.
-10: Green (5)
-8: Jutanugarn (5)
-6: Kim (6), S Park (6), Korda (6)
-5: Kang (6), I Park (6)
Preamble
Welcome to our coverage of the final day of the second-oldest major in women’s golf: the Women’s PGA Championship.
Hannah Green is chasing her first major, and indeed her first victory on Tour. The 22-year-old Aussie is in good shape for it, leading at Hazeltine on Saturday evening after rounds of 68, 68 and 70. That put her atop this 54-hole leaderboard:
-9: Hannah Green
-8: Ariya Jutanugarn
-5: Lizette Salas, Nelly Korda
-4: Kim Sei-young, Park Sung-hyun
-3: Danielle Kang, Inbee Park
All good. But there are plenty of threats lurking just over her shoulder – and with major-winning know-how. Ariya Jutanugarn has two majors to her name already: the 2016 British Open and the 2018 US Open. She shot 68 yesterday to close the gap on Green to a single stroke. The defending champion Park Sung-hyun is five behind the leader. Danielle Kang, the 2017 PGA champ, is six back. And also six back is Inbee Park, three times a PGA winner, seven times a major champ, a Hall of Famer and Olympic gold medallist. Throw in Solheim Cup regular Lizette Salas, 2015 PGA runner-up Kim Sei-young, and 20-year-old sensation Nelly Korda, whose length off the tee (see also: Jutanugarn) could be decisive on a long track like Hazeltine, and that’s quite a chasing pack.
But enough preamble. Let’s tee it up. It’s on!
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