Stephanie Meadow fired herself into position for a big week with four birdies in a three-under par 68 on moving day at the LPGA’s Pure Silk Championship.
The Jordanstown professional moved into a share of 16th at four-under par after making one bogey on Saturday. It could’ve been even better for Meadow who found 16 of 18 greens in regulation on day three but 31 putts means she trails Thailand’s Moriya Jutanugarn and Taiwan’s Wei-Ling Hsu by six strokes ahead of Sunday’s final round at the River Course at Kingsmill Resort.
The lead pair posted six-under par 65’s to head the field at 10-under par with both players packing reasons to eye the trophy; Jutanugarn would win her second victory after winning the 2018 HUGEL-JTBC LA Open and Hsu would claim her first ever LPGA Tour victory since qualifying in 2015.
“Definitely a little nervous and a little exciting. But also the COVID pandemic in Taiwan–we got so many new case right now, so people are really nervous and the whole country almost shut down. So I’m very happy of my performance on the first round, that I can to show and share with all my friends and family the good news,” said Hsu who will be in the final round on Sunday for the first time.
“I don’t know what I going to end up today, but hopefully I going to have even better performance tomorrow and hopefully I can share this good news to my family and the people in Taiwan.”
“It’s great. It’s always great to come back, of course,” said Jutanugarn. “Seeing the ball go into the hole and feeling good. Swing is good, but, I mean, tomorrow is going to be new day and you don’t know what’s going to happen. I’m just trying to keep working on what I’m doing and just go out and have fun.”
Following closely behind is American Jessica Korda who chipped it to within seven-feet of the hole on the final 18th to make one putt and claim solo third with an overall 9-under par for all three days. Korda nearly claimed her second victory of the 2021 season at the HUGEL AIR PREMIA LA Open when she went wire-to-wire the first three days.
“It was really slow today. It was tough. The greens are definitely a lot faster than they were the first couple days, so I think it was just hard for me to get really comfortable,” said Korda. “It was just nice to be able to put a couple birdies in.”
Fellow American Lizette Salas carded a day total of 7-under par 64 to tie for fourth with Australian Sarah Kemp who would have kept her lead from Saturday if not for one double-bogey on the 11th.
- Full scoring HERE
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