Lee -4 Heading into Final Round
Golf: Women’s Individual Stroke Play – Round 3
Athlete:Minjee Lee
Venue: Olympic Golf Course
Su Oh carded an impressive 66 to keep Australia’s hopes of a first Olympic golf medal alive, joining compatriot Minjee Lee five shots off bronze going into the final round.
In increasingly gusty conditions at the Olympic Golf Course in Barra de Tijuca, the 20-year-old holed six birdies in the first half of the third round on Friday to rocket up the women’s leaderboard before playing solidly in the back nine to register seven consecutive pars.
A fine approach shot at the par five 18th then allowed her to strike her seventh birdie for the day to finish four under par overall.
Minjee Lee, who started the day four shots off the leaders, endured a horror start. After a fine birdie on the first, Lee bogeyed the second and then found the water twice in two shots on her way to a triple bogey at the third. A bogey on the fourth hole meant that she had dropped five shots in three holes to fall to two under.
Lee recovered to fire back-to-back birdies on five and six before 12 consecutive pars steadied the ship for the Perth native to finish alongside Oh on -4.
“We’ll have to see whether that round is good enough for me to be challenging for a medal,” said Oh.
“The back nine is playing so much tougher than the front nine. When I finished five under for the day after the first nine I was obviously hoping for a few more birdies. But then I felt that birdies were not really an option – I thought “just get it up and onto the green safely and two-putt home.”
“It was hard coming in especially on 12, 13 and 14. Not only is it hard to get onto the green but putting is also hard. I backed away so many times because of the gusts – you just have to be patient.
Steve Stammers
olympics.com.au