Women’s British Open – 3rd Round

Lorena Ochoa holds a six-shot lead going into the final round of the Ricoh Women’s British Open. Her round of 73 keeps her at -6, with second-place Linda Wessberg the only other player in the field not above par. Annika Sorenstam, Jee Young Lee, Karine Icher and Maria Hjorth are tied for third at +1.

Lorena was at -8 after a birdie at 12 but bogeys at 13 and 16 dropped her back to even par on the day. The good news for her was, the 73 she shot was more than five shots better than the average for the day. Winds of over 25mph ruined many a player’s round. No one posted better than 72, and Wessberg, Hjorth and Stacy Prammanasudh were the only players to manage even that. Wendy Ward and Catriona Matthew were both only one stroke behind starting the day but they both carded 80 to fall to +2 and tied for seventh. Sorenstam and Icher both improved themselves by one position (T4 to T3) by shooting 77 but they are now seven behind instead of three.

Suffice it say, all of the talk about Ochoa not winning a major will be magnified about 1000 times if she is unable to bring home the trophy after taking this lead to Sunday. There are a couple of players in the Top 10 right now I wouldn’t mind winning, but my heart will be behind Lorena tomorrow morning.