FRISCO, Texas — (AP) — Minjee Lee knows how to play in windy conditions having growing up in Australia and now living in North Texas. She also has experience winning majors.
The two-time major champion is in position for another one after the first bogey-free round for anyone during the wind-swept KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. Her 3-under 69 in the third round Saturday pushed her into the lead, four strokes ahead of Jeeno Thitikul.
“I’m constantly practicing in windy conditions ... It is windy, but not this windy, and it’s really consistent as well,” Lee said. “Yes, I can hit a knock-down shot, but you also have to play the wind. You have to play so much extra out here that you have to be a little more creative.”
Lee was at 6-under 210 after beginning the round three strokes behind Thitikul, the world’s No. 2-ranked player who led alone at the end of each of the first two days. Lee went ahead to stay with a 2-foot par at the 405-yard 12th hole when Thitikul had her second consecutive bogey, and fourth of the day on way to a round of 76.
“She played absolutely an `A’ game for sure,” Thitikul said. “I never saw her miss today at all.”
When Lee did miss, she was 7-for-7 scrambling.
Far from tree-lined Sahalee outside Seattle where the Women’s PGA was last year, Fields Ranch East at PGA Frisco is much more open and exposed to the ever-present Texas wind that was the strongest it had been all week. There were gusts of more than 30 mph Saturday, with much the same forecast for Sunday. Temperatures were again in the mid-90s.
Nelly Korda, the world’s top-ranked player, described the conditions as “just brutal” after her round of 72 that began with back-to-back bogeys. She finished with five birdies and five bogeys and is tied for sixth at 2-over 218.
Lee and Thitikul, seeking her first major title, were the only players still under par and will play together again Sunday. Lexi Thompson (75), after a triple-bogey start, was tied for third at 1 over with Hye Jin Choi (72) and Miyu Yamashita (73).
Thitikul, from Thailand, had the only birdie Saturday among the 78 players on the 172-yard, par-3 eighth hole, which generally plays downwind and where only 29% of the tee shots all week have stayed on the green. That 13-foot birdie was her first of the day and got her to 5 under, two strokes ahead of Lee.
But Thitikul’s lead was gone after back-to-back bogeys on the back side. She pushed a 4-foot par chance past the hole at the 383-yard 11th, her first miss inside 5 feet this week. Then her drive at the 417-yard 12th hole went way right into a penalty area.
Lee, who won the 2022 U.S. Women’s Open and 2021 Evian Championship in France, was steady Saturday with eight consecutive pars before a 4-foot birdie at the 487-yard ninth hole. Her other birdies were an 18-footer at the 515-yard, par-5 14th and a 1 1/2-foot at the bunker-surrounded 236-yard par 4 15th hole.
While acknowledging that a four-stroke lead “feels really big,” Lee isn’t taking anything for granted.
“Obviously, major Sunday is a different story. This is round three, so I think, you know, I have to still dig deep and post a score, even with a four-shot lead,” she said. “So I’m just going to put my head down and just work on the things that I can do and do it to the best of my ability.”
Thitikul three-putt from 50 feet at No. 14 was her third bogey in a four-hole stretch.
“Definitely frustrated about the result today a little bit, like not really making putts like the first two days,” Thitikul said. “But like still on the positive side that, just two players making under par after three rounds, and I’m one.”
Semi-retired Thompson, in the second-to-last group, hit her tee shot into the fairway on the 517-yard par-5 first hole, a 207-yard drive into the wind. But she topped her second shot that went only 117 yards, then shanked her next shot right, a ball that was never found for a penalty on way to triple bogey. She followed with another bogey on the second hole, but had two birdies and only one bogey the rest of the way.
Thompson, playing for only the seventh time in 16 tournaments this season, won her only major in the 2014 Kraft Nabisco Championship, but her 13 top-five finishes in majors since 2013 are the most by any player and among her 20 top-10 finishes in those events.
LPGA rookie Rio Takeda opened with a bogey 6 at the first hole after starting the round tied with with Lee for second place. Takeda later had a pair of double bogeys/
Grace Kim had the best round of the day with a 68 that included six birdies and two bogeys, moving up from a tie for 68th to tied for 10th. Minjee Lee and Andrea (71) had the only other under-par rounds. Kim, among 11 players who got to the weekend right on the 7-over cut, teed off at 6:55 a.m. local time, six hours before the final group did.
There was even a hole-in-one, Brianna Do acing the 150-yard fourth hole.
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