Michelle WieDarren Carroll
Winnipeg, Man. - The conditions were dire during the third round of the CN Canadian Women's Open.
Rain drenched the course throughout the day, although worse in the afternoon, changing the conditions of play, making seawood soup out of the rough, and spawning umbrellas at every turn.
But by far the worst factor affecting the players were the relentless mosquitoes. Canadians have long known about them. Now the whole world does, too.
"They tried to kill me," said Shin Jiyai, the South Korean player who is tied for the lead with Michelle Wie at 206, 10-under par.
"A lot of bug out there," said Choi Na Yeon, a hard-hitting, strong finisher who rarely misses a beat. "I couldn't focus on my game. I think I did my best today."
Choi said her caddie suffered almost 20 bites on his neck and face, and she has a rash of them inside her shirt. She used spray, she said, but that seemed to attract them even more.
"I think they like the spray."
Wie said the mosquitoes were the factor that made it most tough to focus.
"I found out they were a little better on the greens than on the fairways," she said. "They were very bad on the rough."
Wie found the rough more times than she wants to remember. She says she'll try to avoid the rough in the final round on Sunday.
Wie said she wasn't swayed by the mosquitoes. She's seen them before. "At least you guys don't have flying cockroaches," she said.
Defending champion Suzann Pettersen had a dismal day, and the mosquitoes didn't help. "I'm so douched down with all the spray. I don't know if I even want to go out with these clothes. It's pretty bad."
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Video: Lorie Kane | Morgan Pressel | Suzann Pettersen |
Video: Paula Creamer | Jiyai Shin | Michelle Wie
Related: Up and down day for Canadian trio
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Morgan Pressel walked off the course, frustrated at Winnipeg's bug life. "You're standing over your putt and they're in your ears and it's horrible. I wanted to take off my rain pants, but I would have gotten just torn apart."
She said she's never experienced a bout with bugs that was worse than what she encountered Saturday. She said it didn't affect her play, but she had to back off a lot of shots and start over, regroup.
Shin said she suffered about 10 bites on her right arm, and other bites on her whole body. "I tried to keep long shirts, long pants, but it doesn't work," she said. "And put some spray on too. But it doesn't work. They're coming everywhere."
Shin said it took her a while to find her rhythm, and struggled with her driver shot. But she was able to make some good recoveries with some good putts, and at one point, drove ahead of Wie, her playing partner.
She saw Wie making a birdie on the 10th hole, and tried to be more aggressive after that. It made her tempo faster, and all she got for that effort was a couple of bogeys. Shin took a deep breath and saved herself by making a good putt on a difficult pin placement at the 16th hole. She knew she had to make par on that one, as she and Wie fought head-to-head all the way.
Wie would have easily sailed into the lead, but she had misses on four close and seemingly easy putts. A couple of times, Wie stood motionless after the ball rolled off a lip, still in her swinging pose, seemingly incredulous at what she had done.
Wie shot 72, while Shin shot 69 Saturday, but Wie constantly clutched her back between shots, and at one point, thumped her back, seeking relief.
"I have to say, missing the fairways and trying to muscle it out of the rough really did not help the situation much," she said. "Hopefully I'll be in the short stuff tomorrow."
Wie, who is in line to win only her second LPGA tournament, said she won't think about winning or losing on Sunday. The plan is to think only about playing better than she did on Saturday, making those missed putts.
"It's not up to me whether I win or lose," she said. "It's not up to anyone...I can only control myself out there."
Shin and Wie are three strokes ahead of a threesome that includes two South Korean players and Pettersen, who admitted she was lucky - and is surprised - that nobody made major moves up the ladder in the third round.
Pettersen fumbled and struggled, and shot 72, but nevertheless is still within striking distance. Lee Jee Young and Choi both shot 71, and are six shots under par.
"I'm glad there's a day left," said Pettersen. "It was just awful for me, but I'm within reach of the top. It was a good day to play bad and hang in there.
"...It's not always a beauty contest, but those days are also nice."
Australian Rachel Hetherington scorched the course early in the day when the rains were lighter, and shot 66, bringing her up into a tie for 16th, in only her second tournament after a layoff.
Lorie Kane had a dream round, finishing with 68, and is 10 strokes off the lead.
Paula Creamer had to battle a different kind of bug, suffering from a stomach ailment that made mosquitoes seem like gnats on the scale of annoyances. It was either food poisoning or a 24-hour bug, she said. She swings on the side of food poisoning, because her father is sick also.
"This was the hardest thing I ever had to do," she said, after shooting 70, but still remaining tied for ninth place, six strokes off the lead. Her illness shortened her drive about 40 yards, she said.
"I've played through a lot of pain and I've played through being sick a bunch, but this was a hard one. The weather didn't help much... I felt like I was dying pretty much the whole day today."
She said she considered pulling out at every shot, sometimes crouching down to still her stomach. "You have to grind it out," she said. She doesn't know how she broke par and she doesn't know how she played 18 holes. "I know I gave it 150 per cent today."
Her caddie kept telling her to keep going and if she really couldn't do it, they'd go home. "But I'm not a quitter," she said.
Pressel wasn't impressed with her play, shooting only a 74, although at one point, she was seven under par. "I'm not happy with how I played," she said. "I've been struggling with my timing and my full swing. And on the last few holes, my putting was just atrocious."
Pressel sits in a tie for ninth with Creamer, six shots off the lead.