Lorena Ochoa moved into position for her second straight victory and fifth of the season, shooting a 7-under-par 64 in rainy conditions Saturday to take a four-stroke lead at the Canadian Women’s Open in Edmonton, Alberta.
The top-ranked Mexican, coming off her first major victory two weeks ago in the Women’s British Open, had a 14-under 199 total. She opened with rounds of 70 and 65 and hasn’t made a bogey in 40 holes.
“It was a long day in the rain (but) you get a good feeling when you start getting birdies,” Ochoa said.
Paula Creamer (66) and Laura Diaz (68) were 10-under, Ya-Ni Tseng (67) followed at 8-under, and Juli Inkster (73) and Kimberly Hall (72) were 6-under. Shi Hyun Ahn, tied for the lead with Inkster after the second round, had a 74 to drop to 5-under.
Ochoa, a stroke behind Inkster and Ahn at the start of play Saturday, had five birdies in a front-nine 30 and added two more birdies on the back nine to match the course record set by Karrie Webb on Friday. Ochoa had a chance to break the record, but her 15-foot putt from the fringe on 18 stopped inches from the hole.
“I’m an aggressive player,” Ochoa said. “I was trying to make a lot of birdies, that’s the only way you can really shoot low and do something that they (the fans) can remember.”
Champions Tour: First he had an eagle, then a double bogey. The third round of The Tradition was quite an adventure for David Edwards.
Edwards stumbled on the par-3 17th hole, and wound up with a share of the lead with one round left in the tour’s fourth major.
Edwards and Mark McNulty were two strokes ahead of D.A. Weibring at Crosswater Golf Club in Sunriver, Ore. Tom Watson and Tom Kite were three strokes back of the leaders.
Edwards finished with an even-par 72 for a 12-under 204 total.
McNulty had trouble, too. He bogeyed the par-4 18th for a third-round 70.
Weibring, who won the tour’s last event, the 3M Championship in Blaine, Minn., shot a 68 to reach 10-under.
“I think it’s up to me to play a good round,” he said of his game plan for today.
Keith Fergus, who won the Ginn Championship earlier this season, appeared to finish at 10-under along with Weibring. But a rules official penalized Fergus two shots for testing the conditions of a bunker on the 17th hole by shuffling his feet. Fergus is 8-under after a 72.
Edwards, who joined the tour last year and has three top-10 finishes this season, eagled the par-5 12th, holing his third shot from 146 yards.
Watson, who had a setback Friday when he hit Ben Crenshaw’s ball by accident and was given a two-stroke penalty, shot a 67 to reach 9-under.
PGA Tour: Jeff Overton shot a 6-under 66 to open up a three-stroke lead after the third round of the Wyndham Championship in Greensboro, N.C.
The 24-year-old Overton, seeking his first tour victory, had an 18-under 198 total on the Forest Oaks Country Club course.
“It’s better than being three shots back, but I don’t think 18-under’s going to win the golf tournament,” Overton said. “So we can’t go out there (today) and just play bad. We’ve got to go out there and have a good, solid round of golf.”
Billy Mayfair (64), Anders Hansen (68), Carl Pettersson (68) and Tim Petrovic (68) were 15-under, and 2003 winner Shigeki Maruyama (67) and Lucas Glover (66) are at 14-under.
European PGA: South Africa’s James Kingston shot a 3-under 67 for a share of the third-round lead at the Scandinavian Masters in Stockholm, Sweden.
