After dunking her ball in the water, Azahara Munoz later rebounded to shoot a nine-under 63 on Saturday to vault into contention at the Canadian Pacific Women’s Open.
She is tied with Choi Na-yeon in second place, four strokes behind Ryu So-yeon, who leads at 20 under going into the final round.
“The key of my round was on [hole No.] 4, I was going for it in two with a four-iron and I hit in the water,” Munoz said. “But I kept it calm, I knew I could still make up and down for par, so I did, and after that everything just went my way.”
Except, perhaps, for Ryu, who did not drift back to the pack by shooting a 67. She is looking to become the sixth wire-to-wire winner in this tournament’s history and the first since Michelle Wie in 2010.
Munoz had six birdies on the back nine as part of a bogey-free round, tying the course record at London Hunt and Country Club that Ryu set on Thursday.
The 26-year-old Spainard said she felt as if she was doing “everything” right.
As dazzling as Munoz’s round was, she still has some work to do to catch up to Ryu, who has been consistent through three rounds with 21 birdies and just one bogey.
Ryu is looking for her first victory since 2012.
“I haven’t won any tournaments the last two years,” the 24-year-old said. “If I’m going to win this tournament, I’m going to break that. I really want to break it, I really want to stop it.”
Ryu is on pace to snap the tournament record of 18-under set by Suzann Petterson in 2009 and is within range of the LPGA Tour record of 26 under, which belongs to Annika Sorenstam.
Determined to focus on her own game, the South Korean said she did not look at the leaderboard on Saturday, but Ryu already set a goal of making seven birdies in the final round.
Ryu, Munoz and Choi, who shot a six-under 66, were scheduled to tee off as the final group at 11:45am yesterday.
Behind them on the leaderboard are LPGA Championship winner Inbee Park at 14-under, Swede Anna Nordqvist at 13 under and Americans Brittany Lincicome and Danielle Kang at 12-under.
Brooke Henderson of Smiths Falls, Ontario, shot a one-under 71 to get to four-under as the lowest Canadian left.
Choi set the tone for the low-scoring weekend with an eight-under 64 on Thursday morning. After seeing that, Park wondered if it would take 20-under to win the tournament.
Given the way Ryu has been driving, chipping and putting, that turned out to be a conservative estimate.
“It’s going to be over 20, that’s for sure,” Park said. “I don’t know how So-yeon is going to play tomorrow, but if she goes really low tomorrow, 25-under par’s definitely possible.”
Munoz’s only real glance at the leaderboard was Thursday, when she saw Choi’s 64 before she even teed off, but that did not make her task feel any more daunting.
Taiwan’s Yani Tseng shot a 69 to move up to a tie for 41st at 212 overall, while compatriot Candie Kung was tied for 73rd on 216 after a third round of 73.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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