by Al Campbell
VANCOUVER, Aug. 27 (silubaba) -- Megan Khang moved closer to securing her first LPGA Tour win on Saturday as the American carded a four-under 68 during third-round play of the CPKC Women's Open for a three-shot lead at Canada's national championship.
Through 54 holes at Shaughnessy Golf and Country Club, Khang, the overnight leader, was 11-under 205 at the 2.5 million U.S. dollars LPGA Tour event. South Korean Kim Sei-young vaulted up the leaderboard to second with a 67 on the strength of two eagles, one of them a hole-in-one at the 202-yard eighth hole.
Ko Jin-young of South Korea was four shots back in third after a 71, one shot ahead of England's Georgia Hall (70) and first-round leader Yuka Saso (72) of Japan.
Yin Ruoning was the best among the Chinese players as the world No. 3 carded a 71 to finish on one-under, 10 shots off the pace. Lin Xiyu and Liu Yu each shot 70 and were one-over par. Liu Ruixin improved to a 71 to get to three-over, while Yan Jing (79) and Zhang Weiwei (78) fell out of contention.
Khang, who held a one-shot lead going into the day, started her round with six straight pars. She then made birdies at the seventh and eighth holes before giving the shots back with bogeys at the 10th and 12th holes. After Kim played a few groups ahead and took a two-shot lead on the strength of two eagles, Khang regained the lead when she carded four birdies over the last five holes.
"I was hitting it really good today. You know, it's always good when the ball striking is there. I hit some pretty good shots to about 15 feet the first few holes; couldn't hole them," said the Massachusetts native.
"I birdie putt on 11 and I bogeyed 12, and then just like that I look at the leaderboard and I hear a roar on 13. Not knowing who it is, I take a peek at the leaderboard and I see (Kim) Sei-young's name up at the top and I'm like, 'Oh, here we go'.
"But at the end of the day, you can't control what everyone else is doing. I was trying my best to stay in my own little world because it's hard out there and you can't really lose focus for a second."
Kim, a 12-time winner on the LPGA Tour but being winless in the past three seasons, showed signs of her old dominant self on Saturday. Her round featured two eagles, including the hole-in-one. On her second eagle, she drove the green at the 14th hole and converted a 10-foot downhill putt to take a brief two-shot lead atop the leaderboard. Her round also featured three birdies and two bogeys, one coming at the last hole.
"I hit a really solid shot with a five-iron," Kim said of her perfect shot, the second ace of her career. "The ball flight was really beautiful. I was like, 'Yeah, that must be good'. The people are like loud and they all clapped, so I thought it must have gone in the hole."
Ko, the former world No. 1, put herself in the mix to get her third win of the season when she carded a round with three birdies and two bogeys, including one at the 162-yard 17th hole.
"Today was a long day. The last three holes, I don't have energy. My energy was lower. I don't know why," said the Seoul native who won this tournament in 2019.
"The first two days was almost perfect, but today was just okay. I've got a lot of good energy from my Korean fans out there, so I think I'll be better tomorrow." ■
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