Hye-Jin Choi carded a 3-under-par 69 on Saturday to maintain a one-stroke lead over fellow South Korean Amy Yang after three rounds at the Buick LPGA Shanghai.
Choi, who is seeking her first win on the LPGA Tour, recorded four birdies on the front nine at Sheshan Golf Club and moved to 9-under 207 for the tournament.
“I hit a really good shot to the pin and I had lots of birdie chances and I made the birdie, so that’s the reason I played (well) on the front nine,” Choi said of her early success.
Yang, a six-time LPGA Tour winner, collected seven birdies against three bogeys to shoot a 68 on Saturday. She is alone in second place at 8-under, one stroke ahead of China’s Ruoning Yin (67).
“I think I putted really well today, even better than yesterday,” Yang said. “I made some mistakes in the middle round, but I think I still did a good job overall.”
Yin, who had five birdies in a bogey-free round, admitted she would love to win an LPGA event at home.
“That would — I think that means everything because I wanted to win in front of the home crowd so bad,” Yin said. “I’m able to get it done in 2024 and I hope I can do it again tomorrow.”
Japan’s Rio Takeda and Spain’s Carlota Ciganda each shot a 71 on Saturday to sit in a tie for fourth place, five strokes off the pace.
Alison Lee fired a 67 to vault 18 spots on the leaderboard into sixth place. She recorded six birdies and a bogey on Saturday to get to 2-under.
“I would say this course is a beast,” Lee said. “You know, this obviously isn’t one of our major championships, but especially the first two days, it definitely was playing like it. It was playing challenging. It was playing long. Even some of the greens as well. You have long clubs into a few holes where, I mean, you can’t miss it or else you have a high chance of making a bogey.”
Australian Grace Kim, who entered play on Saturday in a second-place tie with Yang, recorded a 75 in the third round.
Defending champion Jeeno Thitikul of Thailand shot a 74 Saturday and sits at even par for the tournament, tied for ninth.
This is the sixth edition of the Buick LPGA Shanghai and the first at the 6,735-yard Sheshan Golf Club, which previously hosted the HSBC Champions tournament.
Shanghai is the first of four events on the LPGA Tour’s late-season Asian Swing, with upcoming stops in South Korea, Malaysia and Japan.