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Sei Young Kim still is at the top, but a five-shot gap she built in the middle of Saturday’s third round is all but gone in the CME Group Tour Championship.
Kim, who has nine victories but no major championships despite a few chances, has a one-stroke lead over 21-year-old Nelly Korda with Sunday’s $1.5 million winner’s check on the line.
“Back nine was little tough to focus on what I have to do,” Kim said. “I kept think about like future, so I was like, ‘Nope, Sei Young. Stop thinking. Focus on it.'”
Korda was focused on catching Kim, 26.
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“It’s moving day, so I try to move up the leaderboard, try to get closer to her,” said Korda, who finished second behind Lexi Thompson last year. “She’s playing really solid golf. I’m just trying to take it shot by shot and see where it goes.”
Kim was in the last group in the 2018 Evian Championship, but finished one stroke back of Angela Stanford. In 2015, Kim had a three-shot lead in the ANA Inspiration, but shot a final-round 75 and tied for fourth.
But Kim does have eight top-10 finishes in majors over the past five years.
“I know that if I win that’s my career 10 times win, but I don’t want to think about it,” she said. “Just I want to play well. That’s my biggest target.”
Kim will enjoy playing with Korda.
“She’s my favorite player,” Kim said. “She plays so fast. So fast, yeah. When I play with her, it’s like, yeah, very fast, fast, fast.”
Beware of the sick golfer, though. Kim, who lives in Dallas, went home after the Asian swing, and picked up a cold she’s been battling this week.
“I couldn’t practice that much because of the weather,” Kim said. “But I try, so that’s the reason why I got bad cold.”
Outside of Kim and Korda, it may be a case of the rest of the field at Tiburón Golf Club at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort.
Germany’s Caroline Masson is four back at 12-under 204, and England’s Charley Hull, who set the course tournament scoring record at 19 under when she won here in 2016, is another stroke back after a 66.
Rolex Player of the Year and World No. 1 Jin Young Ko of South Korea also had a 66 and is joined by Nelly’s older sister Jessica, Australia’s Su Oh, and Canada’s Brooke Henderson, a Miromar Lakes resident, at 10 under, six back.
Defending champion Lexi Thompson was 3 under for her round after the front, but shot just 1 under on the back and is tied with six others at 9 under.
NBC will show the final round live from 1 to 4 p.m. A cool front is scheduled to move in overnight, with a chance of rain early in the morning but diminishing as the day goes on.
Kim got to 15 under with back-to-back birdies on Nos. 6 and 7, but stalled after that. She parred the next seven holes, including having to save a pair of pars, then drained an 18-footer from the back of the green on No. 15 to get to 16 under after Korda drew within one.
“Back nine it was kind of boring,” Kim said. “I had a lot of chances.”
Korda double bogeyed No. 3, but that just set off a string of seven birdies in 11 holes, including three in a row, as she re-climbed the leaderboard.
“Kind of hit the brakes every single day on the back nine, and I just told myself, ‘Just be really aggressive on the back nine,’ and it worked out today,” Korda said.
Masson didn’t play her way out of having a chance, but didn’t enhance it with pars on the last four holes.
None of the top three have a major championship victory, although Kim has nine wins and Korda has three, including two this year. Masson, 30, has one win, back in 2016.
There’s $1.5 million on the line, and a leaderboard that includes two major winners — Ko has two, both this year, and Henderson has one — for Kim to battle, along with her cold, Sunday.
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