South Korea’s Sei Young Kim sits at 15-under-par, two strokes ahead of the field heading into the final round at El Caballero Country Club.
The 33-year-old got off to a hot start, making five birdies on the front nine before having a period of struggles on the back nine, making four straight bogeys from 14 to 17 to post a one-under-par 71.
“Oh, wow, it feels like roller-coaster,” said Kim. “It’s golf. It can be happen again,” she added. “It’s learn and then learn and learn. Mistake and then learn. Hopefully, success end of the day tomorrow.”
“Every hole is downwind starting 15 until the 18,” said Kim, who hit into the water on 16 going aggressively at a difficult pin. “I was struggling with the downwind today,” she added.
“I’m very confident, but I just keep doing what I’m doing the last couple days,” Kim said. “That’s what I can do the best. So we’ll see tomorrow.”
Kim sits just ahead of four golfers in share of second place, as Australia’s Hannah Greene, Thailand’s Suvichaya Vinijchaitham, USA’s Jessica Porvasnik, and Korea’s Ina Yoon as sit at 13-under.
Greene is in search of her third JM Eagle LA Championship title, after winning the event in 2023 and 2024.
“I felt like I was hitting the ball well the previous two rounds,” Green said. “Today kind of caught me off guard a little bit. Felt like I hit it better off the tee but perhaps a couple wayward drives that kind of made it a bit tricky to make a par.”
“I don’t really know where they put the pin locations for tomorrow, but I’m sure they’ll be tricky and there will be some holes that will probably play easy,” Green said. “I’ve noticed the last two days the wind is kind of switched at times so that will be tricky to manage. The ball is going far off the tee.”
During the round, sponsors raised the prize purse from $1 million to $4.75 million.
“Amazing news for all us players,” Green said of the announcement. “Whether it did it before round one started or on the weekend, still amazing news for us players. I really think they jumped on board for this tournament.”
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