Charley Hull overcame a furious Nelly Korda comeback, and a huge mistake on the final hole, to hold on to a one-stroke lead over Korda heading into the final round of The Annika driven by Gainbridge.
Hull started quick with a birdie on the first hole. She added another on seven in the middle of a group of pars. On the back nine, it was a bit more of a roller coaster. Hull had three birdies and three bogeys on the final seven holes. One of those bogeys was the difficult par four 18, where her second shot found the water in front of the green.
Hull hit 11 fairways and 13 greens while averaging 297 yards off the tee.
Making a big charge after a slow start was world No. 1 Nelly Korda, who bogeyed two of the first four holes. Her round was for the most part in neutral, until two long birdie putts fell on eight and nine to give a shot of momentum at the turn. On the back, Korda put on a clinic. She really didn’t have a bad shot, putting drives in the fairways and hitting greens with great chances at birdie. While she had 30 putts for the round, it wasn’t really indicative of how well she played with the flat stick. She was terrific until a relatively short miss on 18.
Joining Korda one shot short of the lead is Weiwei Zhang, who had an incredible -5 front nine, and was almost as good on the back nine. She made nine birdies in total with only one bogey, and had just 25 putts on a day where the greens gave players fits.
The final round kicks off streaming at 1:30 eastern time and on Golf Channel at 2:00.
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