Saturday, July 12, 2008

Jamie Farr Classic – 3rd Round

Paula Creamer wasn’t able to completely put the tournament away on Saturday but she still holds a four-shot lead at the Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic. Eun-Hee Ji remains in second place at -14 while Rachel Hetherington is third at -11. Karrie Webb and rookie Shanshan Feng are tied for fourth at -10.

With Ji the only player closer than seven shots, Creamer still controls her own destiny but she didn’t expand her lead like she did Friday. The 50% birdie rate she was registering dropped considerably – only three to go along with two bogeys – and a 70 was the result. Ji crept two shots closer with a 68. She got within three when she birdied 11 and traded birdies with Paula at 13, but a bogey at 14 dropped Eun-Hee four back. Hetherington posted her third round of 68 or better with a six-birdie-two-bogey 67.

Webb, Feng and Kristy McPherson made the big moves up the board. After having made the cut with only one shot to spare, Karrie fired a run-of-the-mill (for the Farr) 62 to leap into the tie for fourth. Feng, whose best finish of the year has been T39 at the Safeway International, posted a career-best 64. McPherson matched the 64 she carded in Arkansas last week and moved into a tie for sixth at -9 with the revitalized Brittany Lincicome. Brittany is (believe it or not) looking for her first Top 10 finish of 2008, as is Alena Sharp (T6), Katie Futcher (T9), rookie Eunjung Yi, Moira Dunn and Jennifer Rosales (all three T15). Defending champ Se Ri Pak fell out of the Top 10 (72 T29 -4) as did Katherine Hull (70 T20 -6) and Giulia Sergas (74 T42 -2).

Play commenced early with threesomes going off 1 and 10 in order to get done before expected afternoon bad weather. They were delayed for about an hour this morning but got the round completed about 3:30pm EDT. The tape-delayed coverage on ESPN2 starts at 4pm.

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