Spain’s Carlota Ciganda will start the final round of the inaugural North Texas LPGA Shootout with a two-stroke lead after shooting five-under 66 on Saturday, 11-under for the tournament. Ciganda, a two-time Ladies European Tour winner, is trying to become the fourth Spaniard to win on the LPGA Tour.
Tied for second place at nine-under are the world's No. 1 player Inbee Park, and second round leader, LPGA Tour rookie Caroline Masson from Germany.
Ciganda started the day just one shot in second place behind Masson. She played alongside Masson today and took the lead right one the opening hole.
Ciganda made a routine par, but Masson made a double bogey, falling one behind in second place. She was steady all day and the save of the day for her came with the play everyone is buzzing about on the Par-4 12th hole.
She drove her tee shot right into a concrete drainage ditch. Then, with the ball half-submerged, she hit it out of the water to about 10 feet and subsequently made the birdie putt. At that moment, that was her fifth birdie of the day and was bogey-free.
Her only blemish on the scorecard came with a bogey on the Par-4 14th. She bounced back and made a birdie on the Par-3 17th and that gave her the two-stroke lead she enjoys now.
Park made a bogey on the opening hole, but displayed her solid play the rest of the way, especially with her strong back nine where she made four birdies for a 31. Just like she did on her opening round, Park was hitting fairway, 9 of 13 on Saturday.
She also hit 16 of 18 greens-in-regulation and made the up-and-down save on her only sand visit. The momentum she gained on the back nine could spell trouble for Ciganda on Sunday. They will play on the final pairing.
Everyone would have understand if the German rookie Masson would have folded after starting her day a double-bogey, and dropping to five-under after a bogey on the Par-3 sixth hole.
She was on the lead to start the day, even after bogeys on three of her last four holes Friday so it looked like she would crumble down. But she was able to steady the ship and made four birdies and no bogeys on her final 12 holes to tie Park for second at nine-under.
Masson was solid off-the-tee hitting 11 of 13 fairways and a driving average distance of 265 yards. Her previous best were on Thursday with eight and 257 respectively
The world’s No. 3, Na Yeon Choi matched Ciganda’s five-under 66 for the round, and that helped her moved up from a tie for 11th into solo fourth at eight-under-par.
Choi, a seven-time LPGA Tour winner, had a bogey-free round and has played 35 consecutive holes without a bogey. Her last bogey came on the opening hole Friday. She was tied briefly for the lead after birdies on three of her first four holes Saturday.
She managed to hit a whopping 17 of 18 greens-in-regulation.
Jee Young Lee (67), Karine Icher (67), Christina Kim (67) and So Yeon Ruy (68) were tied for fifth at six-under.
Suzann Pettersen, who won the LPGA Lotte Championship in a playoff last weekend, shot a four-under 68 and moved into a tie for ninth with I.K. Kim and Shanshan Feng at five-under.
France’s Dewi Claire Schreefel made the cut on the number of plus-3, then fired the low round of the day Saturday as she fired a 65 to jump into a share of 15th at 3-under 210.
The world’s No. 2 Stacey Lewis has been improving slowly and shot a two-under 69. She now stands tied for 26. The world’s No. 4 Yani Tseng was even for the round and is tied for 12th at four-under.
There was a second cut on Saturday that trimmed the final round field to 51 players. Among those that failed to make the final round were Brittany Lang, Michelle Wie, Natalie Gulbis and 2012 Kraft Nabisco winner Sun Young Yoo.
Two-time Women’s British Open champ and world’s No. 7, Jiyai Shin, kicks off the action for the final round at 9:04 am CT. from the opening tee. Following are the tee-times and pairings for some of the notables on Sunday (all times CT):
10:48 am – Stacey Lewis, Mo Martin
10:56 am – Paula Creamer, Kathleen Ekey
11:28 am – Lexi Thompson, Mindy Kim
11:44 am – Yani Tseng, Moriya Jutanugarn
12:00 pm – Shanshan Feng, Brittany Lincicome
12:08 pm – Suzann Pettersen, I.K. Kim
12:16 pm – So Yeon Ryu, Christina Kim
12:24 pm – Karine Icher, Jee Young Lee
12:32 pm – Caroline Masson, Na Yeon Choi
12:40 pm – Carlota Ciganda, Inbee Park
Ciganda has her work cut out for her if she is to joing oin fellow Spaniards Beatriz Recari, Azahara Munoz and Marta Figueras-Dotti with the honor of being an LPGA winner. She will have to hold off the challenge of the world's No. 1 Inbee Park, and No. 3 Na Yeon Choi among others to do it.
This is the first full-field LPGA event in North Texas since the 1991 U.S. Women's Open. The area hasn't been an annual tour stop since 1982. Make sure you don't miss the final round, it promises to be a true shootout.