Na Yeon ChoiScott Halleran
ORLANDO, Fla. - For every stroke, for every putt at the season-ending LPGA tournament, Na Yeon Choi had her head down. Not looking at the points. Not looking at the race for year-end honours.
So it took Choi quite by surprise when she learned Saturday after the third round, that that she had won the money title already, because her closest competitor, Jiyai Shin - a former No. 1 this season - had a really bad day, finishing in a tie for 64th.
"Actually, I have to play one more time," Choi said, thinking of Sunday's fourth round and how it's - usually - never over until it's over.
Well, no, you've won it.
"That means I got a lot of money, this year, right?" Choi said, laughing.
Choi said her goal this year was merely to finish within the top five in the money race, mostly because she finished in sixth place last year. "Every year, my goal is better than last year," Choi said in her improving English.
"Very honoured," she said. "I'm really happy for what I did this season and very good success." She noted she has one more day to play, and then she'll have to make another goal for next season.
Shin would rather forget about her experience at Grand Cyprus, which started with an 8 1/2 -hour drive from her home in Atlanta in heavy Thanksgiving holiday traffic to get here a week ago.
On Saturday, Shin managed par on the front nine, but the back nine was another story. She birdied the second hole, but then bogeyed three other holes and suffered a double bogey on the 14th hole. That gave her four over par for the back nine alone, and she finished at 76, for a total of 228. She barely made the cut to get into Saturday's third round.
Shin has earned $3,473 this week for her efforts, not enough to help her in the money race.
And she won't play on Sunday. Only the top 30 players, including ties, advance to the fourth round. That means 34 players return, including Alena Sharp, a native of Hamilton, Ont. , who tied for 24th with a five-over par 221 total on Saturday.
Lisa Meldrum of Montreal also will return after tying for 29th with a six-over 222.
Going into this tournament, Choi led the money race with earnings of $1,814,558 while Shin was second with $1,779,768.
Choi struggled too, with three birdies, but four bogeys, finishing up at 73 for the day, but still in a tie for ninth at one over par 217 overall.
This is only the third year on the LPGA for Choi, and did she expect such success so early? "I think so, yeah," the slight South Korean said with confidence. "But I did work hard this year. Pretty good for me."
Amy Yang started off slowly in the third round, but her long, high drives helped her place the ball on the greens in the way she wanted to, so she has a one-stroke lead, even with shooting 73, in the third round Saturday for a total of 210.
Maria Hjorth, a Swedish player who lives in Orlando, enjoyed the same advantages and is in second place, after shooting 71, for a total of 211, five under par.
Cristie Kerr is in a tie for third place with Seon Hwa Lee. But Kerr is the only player in the field who has broken par every day, shooting a consistent 71 in each of the three rounds.
Laura Diaz excelled on the tough course, shooting 69, for fifth place. Over the past three days, players have shot scores lower than 70 only seven times. Diaz was the only one to do it on Saturday.
"It was very tough out there, U.S. Open-like conditions," Kerr said. "Really tough pins. These greens, it's really hard to find pin positions, and where you have to putt them, you have to go over a lot of humps and bumps to get to the pins."
Kerr said she really had only one bad swing, maybe two. That tells the story of how tough the course played. "Anything under par today is great," she said.
She said she'll take more satisfaction in shooting a score in the 60s on Sunday rather than being in the hunt for Player of the Year. An American hasn't achieved it since Beth Daniel did in 1994.
At the time, Kerr was in high school, watching Daniel on television. She was addicted to golf back then, and she still is.
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