Is the U.S. Women's Open down to a two-player race?
With one round remaining, has the U.S. Women’s Open been reduced to a two-player battle?
A winner will be crowned at Pebble Beach Golf Links on Sunday. Only six players sit under par for the tournament, and no players have shot three rounds in the 60s.
It has been a typical Open test on the cliffs of the Monterey Peninsula.
But who will close the deal? Well, the safe money is on either of the two members of the final pairing, set to go off at 1:20 p.m. local time — Nasa Hataoka and Allisen Corpuz.
Hataoka, at seven-under, leads Corpuz by a single shot, with Hyo Joo Kim and 36-hole leader Bailey Tardy at four-under. That penultimate pairing figures to be the most likely source of a winner, if it is not Hataoka or Corpuz.
That is especially the case if either Kim or Tardy clean up their weak spots from Saturday’s third round.
Despite ranking second in the field Saturday in greens hit in regulation, Kim struggled once reaching the putting surface, needing 32 putts (tied for 62nd in the field). Tardy, typically a strong driver of the golf ball, hit less than half of her fairways during the third round, as the Georgia native went from the solo lead to joint third.
Could there be a charge from someone further down the leaderboard? Jiyai Shin (two-under) and Hae Ran Ryu (two-under) have been consistent all week at Pebble Beach, and a couple of early birdies on the gettable stretch from holes one through seven could see either (or both) vault into the picture.
What about the group at even and one-over? That contingent is laced with star power, as world No. 28 Charley Hull (even), world No. 36 Angel Yin (even), defending champion Minjee Lee (one-over), pre-tournament favorite Rose Zhang (one-over), young Swedish sensation Maja Stark (one-over) and world No. 17 Ayaka Furue (one-over).
If one of those players jumps out to a hot start, notching three or four birdies in the first seven holes, then there will be some electricity in the air at Pebble Beach.
Given Lee’s major championship chops, Stark’s length off the tee and Zhang’s previous challenge (from well down the leaderboard) at last month’s KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, it is certainly in the realm of possibility.
So, yes, given how Hataoka and Corpuz have played, and the gap between them and the rest of the field, the easy bet is to go with one of the two at the top. Hataoka was brilliant in her Saturday 66, and Corpuz has made just five bogeys all week.
But there could be some noise from outside that final pairing.
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