Moving Day at the Wegmans Lives Up to Its Name

With a fantastic 67 that featured 4 birdies in her last 10 holes, Lorena Ochoa leaped into the lead at the Wegmans. At 9 under, she leads rookie In-Kyung Kim by 1 shot and Cristie Kerr by 4. Angela Stanford and Mi Hyun Kim would be right in the mix, except that the same final 6 holes that have ruined so many others' rounds in this tournament got Stanford (she was 4 under through 12 but finished bogey-bogey-par-bogey-double bogey-par for a 73) while Kim stumbled on the easier middle holes (she had it to 8 under through 6 but bogeyed 4 of her next 7 holes)--so have to settle for joining A.J. Eathorne (69) and Lindsey Wright (72) 5 shots behind Ochoa. Given the volatility we've seen in people's play this week--Ochoa, Kim, and Seon Hwa Lee are the only three players to keep it under par in all three rounds in the entire field; and there are plenty of examples of players whose one not-so-good round was quite awful--it's too soon to suggest an Ochoa-Kim showdown.

Realistically, though, everyone between -3 and +1 is playing for a top 10. There were a lot of 69s and 70s among the people in this category and just as many 72s and 73s. Among players I've been following this year, former Rookie of the Year Seon Hwa Lee shot her third straight 71 to get to -3, 2 shots ahead of Morgan Pressel (73), 3 ahead of Nina Reis (70), and 4 ahead of Jee Young Lee (69) and Ai Miyazato (73) in the Super Soph race. Moira Dunn shot her second straight 71 to get to -1 for the tournament, tied at 15th with former champion Jeong Jang (71), two-time 2007 winner Suzann Pettersen (72), and Meena Lee (73), 1 shot ahead of Paula Creamer, and 2 shots ahead of Brittany Lincicome.

For everyone else, the last round is just a tune-up for the U.S. Women's Open next week. With Young Kim at +6 (T60) and Angela Park at +3 (T43), both will need incredible rounds on Sunday to pass Meaghan Francella on the ADT points race for the first half of the season, so there's an outside chance that Cristie Kerr, Angela Stanford, and perhaps even Ai Miyazato could pass all three of them. But as the purse is small this week and Ochoa looks difficult to catch, it would take flawless rounds for all three and lots of mistakes by others for it to actually happen. Still, stranger things and all....

[Update: They tailored the Saturday webcasts for me: a couple of segments on Ai-chan and a live interview with Moira Dunn. She did a great job!]