Yuka Saso put the word move on Moving Day after rising places off a composed 4-under take of Round 3 in the 2020 Olympic women’s golf tournament at the Kasumigaseki Country Club, Friday.
The result found Saso up to a share of 20th place, a huge 16 spots up and just six shots off a medal position.
With the field wide open for contention into the medal round, the penultimate round saw several players try to advance their aspirations for a hardware, and the 20-year-old Filipino champion made sure she was one of them.
After dropping a shot in her first hole of the day — the No. 10 — Saso waxed hot and got three more birdies in the back nine and moved up to 2-under for the day and overall.
The Filipino-Japanese golfer blasted her tee shots in the 17th and 18th to cover as much range as possible, before finishing those holes with impressive birdie putts. Saso decimated that 284-meter tee-to-hole distance of No.17, taking off 232 meters; and then almost halved the No. 18’s own tee-to-hole, to set herself up for the chances at a birdie.
With momentum, the 2021 U.S. Women’s Open champion eventually ended the day with a bogey-free front side, with birdies in particular, for her final score after going 4-under for the day.
Saso once more powered through No. 3 with a huge second shot that led to another birdie, before she finished off the day with a 4.04-meter birdie shot of No. 8.
On her part, Bianca Pagdanganan ended her round with a birdie to avert further slide and finished with an even-par for the day and overall.
The 23-year-old was rock solid in the front nine where she started and even went inside the top 20, laced with her back-to-back birdies of Nos. 5 and 6. It could have been three straight, but Pagdanganan missed the birdie putt by a few inches.
Another birdie in the No.10 saw her to 3-under, but when the 30th Southeast Asian Games double champion moved on the succeeding holes, she found three rather testy.
Pagdanganan found the bunker in Nos. 11 and 14, where she had a hard time powering it out of the sand, and she eventually needed two more shots each just to move on to the next hole. The 15th also required an extra shot pushing her down to 1-over for the day.
Fortunately, the Olympic debutant had enough to birdie the last hole to get back to 2-under for her final card after 54 holes.
World no. 1 Nelly Korda made her own push and separated herself from the chase pack with a composed 2-under for the day and 15-under overall. Indian star Aditi Ashok went to 12-under to move into a solo hold of the second spot, as four golfers — including former top player Lydia Ko and hometown bet Inami Mone — are just a stroke away from her.
The fourth and final round of the competition is set on Saturday beginning at 6:30 a.m. (7:30 a.m., Philippine time).
