M. Lee bogey-free at Women's PGA, leads by 4

FRISCO, Texas -- Two-time large champion Minjee Lee took implicit the pb with the archetypal bogey-free circular for anyone during a windy week astatine the KPMG Women's PGA Championship, a 3-under 69 successful the 3rd circular Saturday to determination 4 strokes up of Jeeno Thitikul.

Lee got to 6-under 210 aft opening the circular 3 strokes down Thitikul, the satellite No. 2 who led unsocial astatine the extremity of each of the archetypal 2 days.

Lee, the Australian who lives successful adjacent Irving, went successful beforehand with a 2-foot par astatine the 405-yard 12th spread erstwhile Thitikul had her 2nd consecutive bogey, and 4th of the time connected mode to a circular of 76.

Far from tree-lined Sahalee extracurricular Seattle wherever the Women's PGA was past year, Fields Ranch East astatine PGA Frisco is overmuch much unfastened and exposed to the ever-present Texas upwind that was the strongest it had been each week. There were gusts of much than 30 mph Saturday, with overmuch the aforesaid forecast for the last round. Temperatures were again successful the mid-90s.

Nelly Korda, the world's top-ranked player, described the conditions arsenic "just brutal" aft her circular of 72 that began with back-to-back bogeys but ended with 2 birdies down the stretch. She had 5 birdies and 5 bogeys and is tied for sixth astatine 2-over 218.

Lee and Thitikul were the lone players inactive nether par. Lexi Thompson (75), aft a triple-bogey start, was tied for 3rd astatine 1 implicit with Hye Jin Choi (72) and Miyu Yamashita (73).

Thitikul had the lone birdie Saturday among the 78 players connected the 172-yard, par-3 eighth hole, which mostly plays downwind and wherever lone 29% of the tee shots each week person stayed connected the green. That 13-foot birdie was her archetypal of the time and got her to 5 under, 2 strokes up of Lee.

But Thitikul's pb was gone aft back-to-back bogeys connected the backmost side. She pushed a 4-foot par accidental past the spread astatine the 383-yard 11th, her archetypal miss wrong 5 feet this week. Then her thrust astatine the 417-yard 12th spread went mode close into a punishment area, and Lee went up to stay.

Lee, who won the 2022 U.S. Women's Open and 2021 British Women's Open, was dependable Saturday with 8 consecutive pars earlier a 4-foot birdie astatine the 487-yard ninth hole. Her different birdies were an 18-footer astatine the 515-yard, par-5 14th and a 1 1/2-foot astatine the bunker-surrounded 236-yard par 4 15th hole.

Thitikul had her 3rd bogey successful a four-hole agelong erstwhile three-putting from 50 feet astatine No. 14.

Semi-retired Thompson, successful the second-to-last group, deed her tee changeable into the fairway connected the 517-yard par-5 archetypal hole, a 207-yard thrust into the wind. But she topped her 2nd changeable that went lone 117 yards, indicating to her caddie that the upwind had her disconnected balance, and past shanked her adjacent changeable right, a shot that was ne'er recovered for a punishment connected mode to triple bogey. She followed with different bogey connected the 2nd hole, but had 2 birdies and lone 1 bogey the remainder of the way.

Thompson, playing for the seventh clip successful 16 tournaments this season, won her lone large successful the 2014 Kraft Nabisco Championship, but her 13 top-five finishes successful majors since 2013 are the astir by immoderate subordinate and among her 20 top-10 finishes successful those events.

LPGA rookie Rio Takeda opened with a bogey 6 astatine the archetypal spread aft starting the circular tied with with Lee for 2nd place. Takeda aboriginal had a brace of treble bogeys, including the 315-yard par-4 7th spread wherever her thrust coiled up successful the precocious look of a greenside bunker that near her with an awkward stance and incapable to get the shot retired connected the archetypal try.

Grace Kim had the champion circular of the time with a 68 that included six birdies and 2 bogeys, moving up from a necktie for 68th to tied for 10th. Minjee Lee and Andrea (71) had the lone different under-par rounds.

Kim, among the 11 players who got to the play close connected the 7-over cut, teed disconnected astatine 6:55 a.m. section time, six hours earlier the last radical of Thitikul and Lee went disconnected the archetypal hole.

There was adjacent a hole-in-one, Brianna Do acing the 150-yard 4th hole. It was the 3rd successful the past 4 years successful the Women's PGA.