Sybase Classic – 3rd Round

Sarah Lee (-16) set a new course record with a 65 to carry a two shot lead into Sunday at the Sybase Classic. Lorena Ochoa is in second place at -14 after her round of 67. No one else has much chance to win because third place is at -7, nine shots behind Lee. Of course both Lee and Ochoa could post 76s tomorrow while Kate Golden, Young Jo or Sherri Steinhauer fire a 67 but I’m going to stick my neck out and predict that ain’t happenin’. These two are playing too well for both of them to fall apart tomorrow.

Most of the day, Sarah and Lorena were feeding off each other’s incredible iron play. Through five holes they were both -4 on the day and Ochoa birdied six to go to -5 (-14 overall). After that Ochoa seemed to stall a bit, trading two more birdies (9 and 13) with two bogeys (7 and 15). Lee, however, kept on trucking with birdies at 7, 10, 11 and 13 to get to -17. After Lorena’s bogey at 15, Sarah led by three. Lee got a bit unlucky at 16 when her approach rolled just off the green into the rough next to a bunker, creating an awkward stance that prevented her from getting close enough to make her par. Both players closed out with pars to finish their great rounds.

Scoring was a little higher today in the rainy conditions, but there were some other fine performances. Kate Golden (-7) and Young Kim (-6) both posted 67 to put themselves in the Top 10 while Suzann Pettersen managed a 68 despite a triple-bogey at 12 when she cost herself a two stroke penalty by grounding her club (as well as taking practice swings) in a hazard. Rookie Jane Park shot a 77 in the final group that probably felt to her like a 97, dropping her back to -2.

Mi Hyun Kim started the day at +1 and withdrew at some point. I mentioned before that Jee Young Lee had withdrawn Thursday due to some injury – I found out yesterday that she had some kind of eye injury. Hopefully neither player’s problems are serious ones.