Things are very, very crowded at the top — it’s a logjam on the scoreboard at the CME Group Tour Championship and the world’s No. 1 and 2 are among the four players at 18-under par.
Nelly Korda and Jin Young Ko are battling for LPGA Tour Player Of The Year honors but they’ve also got $1.5 million on their minds as does overnight leader Celine Boutier and 64-shooting Nasa Hataoka.
Hataoka was the best of the four tied at 14-under par through 54-holes and Sunday’s finale at Tiburon Golf Club should be a thriller.
Hataoka was the first player to 15-under then came Ko and Korda. Boutier, playing in the last twosome was in the lead at 15-under through 11 holes but bogeys at 12 and 16 dropped her back to 13-under. She regained a share of the lead with a birdie-par finish. She shot even par (72) for the round and finished the day where she started — 14-under.
Mina Harigae’s second-straight 69 put here alone at 13-under par. Lexi Thompson and Leona Maguire both turned in 68s and were joined at 12-under by Nanna Koertz Madsen (67).
The birdie-run of the day came from Ko. Starting at the second hole, she reeled off seven straight birdies. Her magic ended with a bogey on the ninth she then proceeded to make nine straight pars to finish her round.
“It was really fun to have seven birdies in a row,” Ko after her round. “I was feeling I could make every putt on front nine. I had great round, a lot of good shots and good putts on front nine, but I had a lot of missed shots for the back nine. But it’s pretty good, and I shot better than yesterday, so it was fine.”
