South Korea’s Ji-young Park will take a one-shot lead into the final round of the Hana Financial Group Singapore Women’s Open after firing a five-under-par 67 on Saturday.
Ji-young, seeking her fifth victory on the KLPGA Tour, took advantage of the ideal scoring condition in the morning as she went around Tampines Course at the Tanah Merah Country Club without dropping a bogey.
Related: Park, Jeong set early pace at Singapore Women’s Open
Starting from the 10th tee, the world number 72 picked up shots on holes 14 and 17 to turn in 34 before rattling off three straight birdies from number three to seize the top spot.
Ji-young finished the day on 11-under-par 133 to hold a slender lead over Jung-min Hong and So-young Lee, who carded matching 66s and overnight leader Hyun-kyung Park (69).
Yun-ji Jeong posted a 70 to be one shot back in lone fifth with So-mi Lee (69), Hee-jeong Lim (69) and Hae-rym Kim (69) sharing sixth on 136.
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“I didn’t strike the ball too well today, but my putting has made up for it,” said Park, who won the Mediheal Championship for her most recent victory in April.
“Since I finished my round early today, I’ll put in extra hours at the driving range to fix my shot. “I don’t have a number (to shoot) in mind, but hopefully I can go low again like the last two days. There are many good competitors in the field, all I can do is focus on my own game.”
Besides winning early in the season, Ji-young seems to have a knack for winning outside South Korea too.
In 2018, Ji-young won the Hyosung Championship in Binh Duong, Vietnam, which was the season-opener of the 2019 season.
Like Singapore, Binh Duong has a tropical climate and Ji-young is hoping to replicate that success in Singapore.
“For some reason, I was able to play well broad. Personally, I like hot weather and adapt to it quite well,” she explained.
Pre-tournament favourites world number three Atthaya Thitikul of Thailand and world number 14 Min-ji Park kept themselves on the fringe of contention by posting 68 and 69 respectively to sit in a seven-way tie for ninth on 137.
Atthaya stayed on course for her maiden KLPGA Tour victory by trading six birdies against two bogeys while Min-ji had four birdies to offset a bogey to ignite her hopes of winning a seventh title this year.
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Koh Sock Hwee and Shannon Tan lived up to their status as Singapore’s top professional and amateur golfers after both made the halfway cut which was set on even-par 144.
Koh signed for a 72 to finish in a share of 26th on 140 which also included China’s Yuting Shi (71) and Hong Kong’s Tiffany Chan (72).
Shannon, the world number 82 amateur, gave the local fans further reasons to head to the TMCC on the final day after she fired a much-improved 67 to shoot up from tied 88th to tied 53rd.
