Yuka Saso produced her top performance of the tournament with a round-best 7-under 64, gaining a share of fifth place in the 2021 LPGA Marathon Classic at the Highland Meadows Golf Club in Windsor, Colorado, Sunday early morning (Manila time).
The Tokyo Olympics-bound standout produced another eagle — her second of the tournament — to close out the front nine at 7-under overall.
Saso earlier took her first birdies of the round in Nos. 4 and 5, then a bogey in the sixth. She went three strokes up in total from 4-under.
From there, the US Women’s Open champion flexed her game. She carded five more birdies in the last nine holes to rise to solo fourth at this point.
Saso came up with three of these from Nos. 10, 12, and 14. She then duplicated the twin birdies of Nos. 17 and 18 from the previous round, ending the round at 11-under 202 overall.
Bianca Pagdanganan, on the other hand, went into red numbers for the first time at the conclusion of the round. She was a 3-under for the day.
This mostly came from the backside, where the 2019 Southeast Asian Games double gold medalist registered an eagle and a birdie to start off the go-round.
Pagdanganan powered through the par-4 No.13 in just two strokes. That made the difference, since her bogey in the 14th got cancelled out with a birdie off No. 18.
The 25-year-old tried to get it going, but could only settle for pars along the front nine. Nonetheless, Pagdanganan took one more birdie at No.4 for her final score of the penultimate round.
Japan’s Nasa Hataoka pulled away from the pack after she matched Saso’s 7-under for the day.
The world no. 11 carved eight birdies including back-to-backs in Nos. 17 and 18. She is now six strokes away from Americans Mina Hariage and Elizabeth Szokol.
Just strokes adrift from these two Americans, Saso will look to spoil the party again and zoom into contention as she takes the course at 9:17 a.m. on Sunday (9:17 p.m., Manila time).
On her part, Pagdanganan will try to surpass her third-round performance as she closes her campaign earlier in the day at 7:22 a.m. (7:22 p.m).
