Well, as they moved the third round of the Ginn Tribute up due to rain (and still got dumped on all the way), you've no doubt already read Hound Dog's third round recap and the LPGA's notes and interviews for it. So I'll just give you Sunday's pairings and make a few additional comments.
The big story, of course, is that Lorena Ochoa got it to -14 but bogeyed 3 of her last 6 holes to allow Nicole Castrale (at -8 after her only bogey of the day on her final hole dropped her to 68), Cristie Kerr (at -7 after an almost-flawless 67), and Angela Park (at -7 after a bad back side--38--dropped her to 1-under for the day) to dream tonight of catching her tomorrow.
The rest of the people under par are just too far back to think of more than grabbing a top 10 and maybe a top 5. Even with an uncharacteristic over-par round of 73, Paula Creamer (-4, T6) was passed only by Angela Stanford (71, -5, 5th place) and caught by Sarah Lee (70). Meaghan Francella (66) and Becky Morgan (68) caught Karin Sjodin (71) at -3 and T8. And a bunch of people shot 68s (Sherri Steinhauer, Jimin Kang, Charlotte Mayorkas and Kris Tamulis) to catch Jeong Jang (72) and Pat Hurst (74) at -2 (T12).
Given how far people who started off well have fallen down the leaderboard (not just first-rounders like Dorothy Delasin, Sun Young Yoo, Jee Young Lee, and Meredith Duncan, but also second-rounders like Suzann Pettersen, Karrie Webb, and Laura Davies), the race for the top 10 is wide open. People who have stabilized their games after bad first rounds (like Kyeong Bae, Ai Miyazato, Laura Diaz, and Christina Kim--who have already caught or passed Annika Sorenstam) can make a very big move with a very good round Sunday. Only 6 players in the field have avoided going over par in one of their rounds and only 2 have been sub-par every round, so even those 4 or 5 shots ahead of them are vulnerable to stumbling on this tough course.
With thunderstorms and showers expected all night and with the Weather Channel predicting a 40% chance of their continuing into the late morning and 30% chance of their continuing into the afternoon--and winds over 15 mph expected all day--the course is going to be playing even longer, club selection will be even more difficult, and judging the speed of the greens will be even trickier. Ai-chan will experience the entire range of early weather, being in the first group off the first tee at 10:20 am. Expect more than a few people going off the front with and after her to make moves on the easier front side and put some pressure on the people in the noon and 12:10 pm starting times in the race for the top 10. But for the win it's really between the last two threesomes. And if Ochoa puts together a 34 or better on the front, it's really her tournament to lose. She's #1 for a reason and would love to become the year's first 3-time winner before anyone else gets their second.
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