The Evian Masters was set for a thrilling finale after Wales’ Becky Brewerton, South Korea’s Kim In-kyung and Sweden’s Sophie Gustafson shared the lead after Saturday’s tight third round.
Brewerton, the leader from round one, carded a 69, Kim had a 68 and Gustafson made a big move with a joint best of day 67.
On 12 under par, the trio led by one from Japan’s Ai Miyazato, who three-putted the last for a 70, and American Cristie Kerr, who was the second player to shoot the day’s low score of 67, but the outcome remained wide open with 15 players within five shots of the leaders.
PHOTO: AP
Taiwan’s Candie Kung shot a 71 to sit at one-under after three rounds. Compatriots Teresa Lu and world No. 2 Yani Tseng both shot 74, with Lu on three-over and Tseng five-over.
Brewerton only got into the 90-strong field after winning the Open de Espana from start to finish last week, and she has shared the lead all three rounds at Evian.
While Brewerton had four birdies and a bogey, Gustafson made her move with a flawless round of three birdies and an eagle three at the long seventh.
Kim bogeyed the short second but then had a glorious run of four birdies in a row from the eighth and another at the short 17th. Kerr, who finished second in the US Women’s Open earlier this month, had a couple of birdies in the first half and then surged into contention with three more in the last five holes.
After an opening 75, Mexico’s world No.1 Lorena Ochoa has had back-to-back rounds of 69 but was nine shots off the lead on three under par. American teenager Michelle Wie was on the same mark after a 70.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY STAFF WRITER
CANADIAN OPEN
AFP, TORONTO
Former champion Mark Calcavecchia took advantage of rain-softened greens to birdie nine-consecutive holes in the Canadian Open and snap a long-standing PGA Tour record on Saturday.
The American’s streak began on the par-three 12th hole and continued to the par-five No. 2. Calcavecchia began the rain-delayed second round on the 10th hole.
Calcavecchia combined his 65 with a opening round 71 to reach eight-under 136 as the US$5.1 million rain-plagued event finally lurched to its halfway point.
The tournament was headed for a 36-hole finish yesterday because of nearly 12 hours of rain delays over three days at the Glen Abbey Golf Club.
American Jason Dufner fired a nine-under 63 on Saturday morning to seize the lead at 13-under 131.
Jerry Kelly (67), Scott Verplank (67), Nathan Green (65) and Peter Tomasulo (68) are one shot adrift of Dufner.
South Africa’s Retief Goosen heads the list of six players who are tied at 10-under 134.
Mother Nature threw a wrench into organizers plans of getting a couple of hours of play in either the afternoon or early evening.
“They got a lot of work to do,” PGA Tour tournament director Steve Carman said of the Glen Abbey grounds crew.
SWEDISH MASTERS
AFP, MALMO, SWEDEN
Australia’s Marcus Fraser was hoping to celebrate his 31st birthday in style yesterday after moving into a one stroke lead with a third-round 70 at the Swedish Masters in Malmo on Saturday.
Fraser jumped up the leaderboard after starting the day five shots behind to go eight under and close in on his second Tour win after the 2003 Russian Open.
Joint overnight leader Lee Slattery posted a 75 to take a share of second, one shot behind, with Denmark’s Jeppe Huldahl and local hope Martin Erlandsson.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier