Kim Min-sol enters the final round as co-leader. [Photo provided by KGA]
Kim Min-sol enters the final round as co-leader. [Photo provided by KGA]

Former national team member Kim Min-sol has moved into a share of the lead at the Mercedes-Benz Korea Women's Open, the national title event on the women's golf circuit with a purse of 1.5 billion won (about $982,000).

Kim fired a 3-under-par 68 Saturday — four birdies against one bogey — at Lakewood Country Club's Sangil-Sugil Course (par 71) in Yangju, Gyeonggi Province, to reach a 54-hole total of 3-under 210. She shares the lead with Yang Yun-seo, a current national team member from Incheon Girls' High School Distance Learning High School.

Kim opened her round with a 1.5-meter birdie at the par-5 first hole, then added back-to-back birdies at the seventh and eighth. She briefly took sole possession of the lead after a tap-in birdie at the par-5 11th, where her third shot settled 70 centimeters from the pin. She dropped back into a tie when she missed a 2.7-meter par putt at the par-4 15th, and will enter Sunday's final round as co-leader.

Kim claimed her first win of the season at the iM Financial Open in April, and a strong finish Sunday would make her the first player to reach two victories this season. She said the pin positions were challenging but she was satisfied with her birdie count. "If I can keep hitting fairways and putting well like today, I think the results will follow," she added.

Yang had entered the third round holding a two-stroke lead, but a damaging triple bogey at the 15th hole cost her sole possession of the top spot. She had stretched her advantage to four strokes through 11 holes on the strength of three birdies, only to give back two shots with bogeys at the 12th and 14th before finding the water at the 15th and losing three strokes in an instant. She salvaged a share of the lead by holing an 1.8-meter birdie putt at the par-4 18th to close out her round.

National team member Yang Yun-seo tees off at the second hole. [Photo provided by KGA]
National team member Yang Yun-seo tees off at the second hole. [Photo provided by KGA]

"At the 15th, my ball was buried in the rough," Yang said. "I went for an aggressive shot but hit it heavy and it went into the penalty area. I told myself it was in the past and there was nothing I could do about it. Fortunately, I made birdie at 18 — my tee shot and second shot were both good."

Yang said she plans to play Sunday with the freedom of an amateur who has nothing to lose. "I'll embrace the nerves and treat playing in the final pairing as a learning experience," she said. "As a national team member, the Korea Women's Open is a meaningful national title. It would be an honor to win, but it's not something you can just will into happening. I'll give it everything I have."

Choi Ga-bin and Thailand's Patcharajudan Kongkraphan are tied for third at even-par 213, three strokes off the lead — a gap that remains well within reach heading into the final round.

Veteran Shin Ji-yae carded four birdies and three bogeys to move to 1-over 214, joining Kim Min-sun and Jeon Seung-hee in a share of fifth place. Shin won this event twice before, in 2006 and 2008.


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