South Korea’s Hye-Jin Choi and Hyo Joo Kim posted a steady 1-under-par 69 and vaulted past three duos to take a one-stroke lead after three rounds of the Dow Championship on Saturday at Midland (Mich.) Country Club.
The South Korean team sits at 10-under 200, one stroke ahead of Gina Kim and Yana Wilson, who carded an even-par round of 70. Another pair of Americans, Alison Lee and Lilia Vu are in solo third place after a 1-under 69 and 8-under total of 202.
The LPGA’s lone team event featured 72 two-woman teams when play began Thursday. The 34 teams that made the 36-hole cut played foursomes (alternate shot) today and will play four-ball (best ball) on Sunday.
The Korean duo had a lot of vocal support as they surged to the lead.
It wasn’t just local fans but a lot of Korean people and fans also came out,” said Choi. “So instead of it just being us two it definitely felt like a Korea team.”
The Koreans put up four birdies and three bogies in very windy conditions. Two of the bogies occurred on the lone par-5 holes on the course.
Kim and Wilson birdied the par-3 finishing hole to finish one stroke behind the leaders.
Vu and Lee reeled off three consecutive birdies on holes four through six and birdied No. 10 to take the lead at 11-under. But the duo suffered a triple-bogey on the par-4 16th hole to wipe out three of the four gained strokes.
“I feel like we got off to a slow start yesterday and didn’t really — I mean, I didn’t make any birdies until our 10th hole,” said Vu. “Just being more aggressive and there is nothing to lose. I trust her game and hopefully she trusts mine and we can go out there and have fun.”
Norway’s Celine Borge and Germany’s Polly Mack, who led after two rounds, plummeted down the leaderboard to a tie for 13th place (-4) after an 8-over round of 78.
World No. 1 Nelly Korda and her partner, Germany’s Olivia Cowan struggled to a 6-over par 76 and fell six strokes off the pace at 4-under.
At age 65, Hall of Famer Juli Inkster and her partner Angel Yin recorded an even-par round and passed five teams to finish at 3-under and into a tie for 20th.
Lee has known Vu since she was 12 years old and both attended UCLA. She knows they will have to go low on Sunday.
“Yeah, definitely. I feel like especially best ball format if we want to win tomorrow we have to make a ton of birdies. Besides that, I think we’re just going to try to go out and have a lot of fun and hopefully the putts drop.”
Choi is looking also forward to Sunday’s final round.
“Rather than foursomes, four-ball is obviously easier for the players, so for tomorrow for four-ball, the mindset will just be doing our best individually and hopefully that will translate,” she said.
