One shot put Minjee Lee proper within the combine to clinch her second US Ladies’s Open, and third main.
She’s going to start the ultimate spherical in a three-way tie for the lead with Andrea Lee and Wichanee Meechai after carding a 4-under 66 within the third spherical.
The 2022 champion would be part of the legendary Karrie Webb with two US Open crowns if she goes on to win.
READ MORE: Tedesco handed Blues lifeline as Edwards dominated out
READ MORE: Demon’s touching second with fan after 17-year Aussie first
READ MORE: ‘Nightmare’: Champions League ultimate stopped by pitch invaders
Lee was 4 strokes off the lead and struggling to get something going when she hit her second shot on the par-5 seventh to lower than a metre for a tap-in eagle.
Minjee Lee is chasing her third main. Getty
Equally spectacular was her tee shot to a scary entrance left pin on the infamous par-3 12th gap – the identical one on which Nelly Korda made 10 on throughout the first spherical.
“I really thought there could be fairly a number of alternatives for birdie at this time,” Lee stated after the spherical.
“It is transferring day and understanding the USGA they’d in all probability put a few the tees (ahead) – I believed the setup was actually nice at this time.
“So I am actually trying ahead to tomorrow.”
Lee stated her recreation plan for her ultimate spherical on Monday morning (AEST) was easy – keep in her personal recreation.
“Take it step-by-step. It should be difficult – there’s gonna be a whole lot of eyes on you, a whole lot of followers on the market,” she stated.
“Simply be affected person, I am simply gonna follow my recreation plan and my processes, and I believe that is the most effective factor that I can do.”
Lee had a birdie putt on 18 lip out that may have given her the outright lead going into the ultimate spherical. She’s going to play within the ultimate group anyway.
Behind that three-way tie for the lead at 5-under, solely two different gamers are beneath par.
Minjee Lee of Australia acknowledges the group after a putt on the 11th inexperienced throughout the third spherical of the U.S. Ladies’s Open Introduced by Ally at Lancaster Nation Membership on June 01, 2024 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. (Picture by Patrick Smith/Getty Photographs) Getty
Nelly Korda and different massive stars in girls’s golf had been lengthy gone from Lancaster Nation Membership. Left behind was an incredible give-and-take amongst 5 gamers who remained beneath par.
Everybody else was over par, and Lancaster Nation Membership is not the monitor that permits for large fees. It is extra cling on for pricey life, significantly in a ultimate spherical at a US Open.
At stake is a $3.6 million payoff to the winner, by far the most important in girls’s golf. Lancaster has had large galleries all week, identical to in 2015, and the stage may really feel even larger.
Three of the contenders beneath par are former main champions. Andrea Lee was a adorned novice who has one LPGA victory.
Meechai could be probably the most trustworthy about her probabilities.
She is staying in a home by herself — it was rented by a Thai participant who did not qualify — and thought the home could be haunted. “If they’ve a ghost in the home, I believe the ghost likes me,” she stated earlier within the week.
After which she informed of waking up at 3am forward her third spherical.
She stated she had been dreaming of the US Ladies’s Open.
“I believe it is in my thoughts, very deep in there,” she stated.
“I do not suppose I can eliminate it. I am attempting to get together with it. I hope it really works.”
Lee will tee off in her ultimate spherical at 4.15am (AEST) Monday. – With AP
:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25601348/Screenshot_2024_09_03_at_10.07.45_AM.png)
