7 hours Ago
Minjee Lee will enter the final day of the LPGA Tour's LA Championship three shots off the lead after fighting back from a mid-round slump. Four back-nine birdies helped Australia's two-time major champion to a third-round 2-under-par 70 to leave her three strokes behind the tournament's leading group. Lee is at 14-under alongside world number one Nelly Korda of the United States and Japan's Rio Takeda.
The trio is within striking distance of Japan's Akie Iwai (64), in-form American Lauren Coughlin (66) and rising Swede Ingrid Lindblad (68). Lee endured a roller-coaster third round at El Cabarello Country Club. With two birdies in her first four holes, Lee grabbed a share of the lead at 14-under before she struggled with her short-range putting.
Her troubles began with a missed five-foot par attempt on the sixth hole. Then Lee turned a likely birdie into a bogey with a three-putt on the par-five seventh hole. Another crushing lip-out on the eighth left Lee cursing herself after three dropped shots in as many holes.
Lee found the water on the ninth hole as her game continued to unravel. But a scrambling bogey seemed to steady Lee, who rebounded resiliently with birdies on 10, 11, 16 and 18 to reach the clubhouse in a tie for fifth place. Fellow Australian major winner Hannah Green, the two-time defending champion, gave herself a fighting chance of landing a title hat-trick with a third-round 69 to be 11-under and six shots off the pace in an eight-way share of 12th position.
.
