South Korean frontrunner Ko Jin-young takes a four-stroke lead into today’s final round of the Women’s Australian Open after again dominating the field at Kooyonga.
Ko yesterday fired a one-under 71 in the third round to close in on the title and secure her status on the LPGA Tour.
Ko takes a four-shot buffer over Australia’s Hannah Green in the final round as she chases a wire-to-wire victory in Adelaide.
The 22-year-old from Seoul birdied three of her first five holes to lead by six strokes at one stage, before bogeys at the sixth and eighth holes.
At the 11th she made a great par-save and at the 12th she snap-hooked her drive into the trees, leaving her in a difficult spot, blocked out by trees, but she punched out to near the green, chipped to close range and holed the putt.
The other contenders fell away, with compatriot Shin Ji-yai dropping back two shots on the day, while Emma Talley of the US gave back four.
Ko holed a birdie at the 17th and might have made another at the last, but missed the putt from short range.
“I think focus on my game, and think about my chipping keys and putting keys, and enjoy,” Ko said. “This course is narrow, so I [am] thinking about only the greens and then two putts. Birdies will be OK, but yes, that’s it.”
One of the day’s highlights was a hole-in-one by Sweden’s Jenny Haglund at the 14th in her third-round 73.
“That’s so exciting. I’ve never had anything like this at all,” Haglund said of her fourth career ace. “I hit a seven iron, it was 144m. I just aimed right at the pin and it was just how I wanted to hit it. I’ve made a couple of holes-in-one before, but this is obviously the biggest and most important for me, it’s fantastic.”
New Zealand’s former world No.1 Lydia Ko was eight shots off the lead after firing a one-under 71 to be three-under.
Taiwan’s Hsu wei-ling (71) and Chien Pei-yun (73) were in a group on even-par, while former world No. 1 Yani Tseng (71) was a shot further back.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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