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Nelly Korda holds one-shot lead going into final round of LPGA opener

With four birdies and a bogey, world No. 1 Nelly Korda reached 13-under par and holds a one-shot lead after the third round of the Tournament of Champions at Lake Nona Golf & Country Club in Orlando.Julio Aguilar/Getty

Nelly Korda is just ahead of a stacked field going into final round of the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions in Orlando — the LPGA’s 2022 kickoff event. Four women who have won majors are among the top five players.

Korda, the world’s No. 1 and five-time winner in 2021 (including an Olympic gold medal), limited her mistakes on Saturday for a 3-under-par 69 with four birdies and a bogey, and is 13-under 203 overall. Korda, 23, won the 2021 Gainbridge LPGA on the same course, Lake Nona Golf and Country Club.

Danielle Kang, the runner-up at this tournament a year ago, and Mexico’s Gaby Lopez, the 2020 TOC champion, each went bogey-free in matching Korda’s 69, and will begin the final round one shot back. Canada’s Brooke Henderson and Japan’s Yuka Saso matched the day’s low score of 68 and will begin Sunday two and three strokes behind Korda, respectively.

Kang, Henderson and Saso all have won major championships.

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Korda is seeking her eighth career LPGA title. The more she gets in the hunt, the more poised she appears to be. On Saturday, she played alongside a former No. 1 player, Annika Sorenstam, who won 72 times on the LPGA and leads the celebrity field.

“I don’t think anyone is ever really comfortable sleeping on a lead in a sense, but I’m just going to see how I can grow from this opportunity, try to take my best golf into tomorrow, and see how it goes,” Korda said.

Kang held the lead briefly on the back nine and has made only one bogey in three rounds. A Californian who never played very well in the cold, she would rise early at home in Las Vegas in the offseason and make herself practice when it was cold and windy. She experimented with clothing layers that wouldn’t inhibit her swing.

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“There is still a lot of progress to be made,” said Kang, 29, who had a rare winless season a year ago. (This TOC field comprises 29 winners of events in the last three LPGA seasons). “I made a couple swings out there where I just froze up. My body doesn’t react that well in the cold.”

Kang had back-to-back birdies starting at the par-3 13th. At 14, with the tee at the short par-4 pushed up to 251 yards, she drove the green and narrowly missed her eagle putt from 20 feet.

“I gave myself a lot of par opportunities today,” she said. “I didn’t really give myself a lot of birdie opportunities, but capitalized on a couple I did have, which I was proud of myself. I think my biggest thing I’m proud of is that I’m just staying in the moment, staying in what I need to do. I can’t really control what other people do.”

Lopez, 28, has been impressive all week. She had made only two birdies by the time she reached the tee at the 398-yard closing hole on Saturday, staying patient, and even with a good drive, still had 162 yards left directly into the wind. She hit one of her best shots of the day, a solid 5-iron to 12 feet, and buried the putt, finishing with birdie for a second consecutive day.

Sorenstam, who won last summer’s US Women’s Senior Open and is a member at Lake Nona, leads the celebrity division, which uses a Modified Stableford scoring system.

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The race is a tight one. She has 104 points, 2 points better than former MLB pitcher Derek Lowe, 4 ahead of former tennis player Mardy Fish and 5 ahead of military veteran Chad Pfeifer. The winner among the celebrities will earn $100,000. The LPGA champion will earn $225,000.

PGA — Lee Hodges and Paul Barjon took advantage of a late tee time to miss the worst of a windy day and share the third-round lead in The American Express in LaQuinta, Calif..

“It was tough early and it kind of died on our back nine a little bit,” Hodges said. “It was off and on, but it was a good wind. The easy holes were playing a little easier, but the hard holes were hard. So you just had to make a couple pars and then get to those downwind holes.”

Playing together in the final group off the 10th tee on PGA West’s Stadium Course, the PGA Tour rookies and close friends each birdied the par-5 fifth, par-4 seventh, and par-5 eighth and closed with a par.

“We’re just best buddies and we have a great time out there,” Hodges said. “We keep it really light and it’s easy to compete when your friends are playing well.”

Hodges, a 26-year-old former Alabama golfer, shot an 8-under 64. Barjon, the 29-year-old Frenchman who played at Texas Christian, had a 65.

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“We just kind of feed off each other, so it’s been fun,” Barjon said.

Hodges opened Thursday with a 62 at La Quinta Country Club for a share of the first-round lead with defending FedEx Cup champion Patrick Cantlay, then shot a 72 on Friday on PGA West’s Jack Nicklaus Tournament Course.

Hodges and Barjon, both making their 14th PGA Tour start, were at 18-under 198.

Tom Hoge was a stroke back after a 68 at La Quinta, playing in the second group off the first tee in the strongest wind of the day.

European — Scott Jamieson stayed on course for a wire-to-wire win at the Abu Dhabi Championship by making a 6-foot birdie putt at the last hole to retain his one-stroke lead at the end of the third round on Saturday.

The Scottish player, ranked No. 336 and seeking his first title since 2012, shot 4-under 68 and was on 11 under overall in the first European tour event of 2022 after breaking free of a tie for the lead with Shane Lowry and Thomas Pieters (both 67s).

Jamieson has led by one stroke after all three rounds.

“It would be massive, a game-changer, to win a tournament of this stature,” Jamieson said of the Rolex Series event that has grown to become one of the most prestigious on tour. “There’s definitely been some great champions here, [but there’s] an awful long way to go.”

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That’s because there are a few European Ryder Cup players in sight of the Scot.

Lowry was bogey-free around Yas Links as he looks to win in Abu Dhabi for the second time, after his 2019 victory that was topped later that year by winning the British Open. The strong winds this week have been reminiscent of those at British Opens and Lowry has looked at home in the conditions.

The nearest he came to dropping a shot was on No. 18 when a mix-up with his caddie saw Lowry take aim in the wrong direction, his ball nearly going into the water down the left side of the hole.

“We were aiming at the HSBC sign but his one was 30 yards right of the one I was looking at,” Lowry said, with a smile. “Yeah, new course — I thought I hit a perfect shot. I couldn’t believe it came down where it did.

“It was a bad mistake to make because we shouldn’t be doing it in that situation. I got very lucky ... and made a good two-putt afterward. Could have been a different story.”

Pieters also made five birdies and no bogeys to leave himself with a great chance of a sixth European tour title.