Yu Jin Sung takes 1-shot lead into LOTTE Championship finale

HONOLULU (AP) — Yu Jin Sung shot a 1-under 71 on Saturday at windy Hoakalei Country Club to take a one-stroke lead into the final round of the LOTTE Championship.

The South Korean is playing on a sponsor exemption after winning the 2022 LOTTE Open on the Korean LPGA.

“I haven’t really thought about the winning part,” Sung said. “There is still a day left in this tournament. Again, not really thinking about winning, but just trying to show my best golf game.”

She opened with a birdie on the par-5 first, dropped a stroke on the par-4 13th and rebounded with a birdie on the par-4 14th.

“It’s a very difficult course and it’s really windy today, so I tried my best to just ease and play that way,” Sung said.

Georgia Hall, Linnea Strom and tour rookie Grace Kim were tied for second, with 13 players within three strokes of each other at the top of the leaderboard.

Kim, from Australia, had a 70. Hall, from England, and Strom, from Sweden, each shot 71.

“I’m very happy to be in this position,” Strom said. “I’ve been working very hard to be here. So, it’s nice to see some hard work pay off. But I still feel like I’m not hitting it quite as good as I want out there. I’m hitting the drives pretty good, but struggling a bit with my irons at the moment.”

Thailand's Natthakritta Vongtaveelap, tied for the lead after each of the first two rounds, had a 73 to fall into a tie for fifth at 7 under with Lauren Hartlage (70), Christina Kim (71) and Nasa Hataoka (71).

The 20-year-old Vongtaveelap is making her second LPGA Tour start. In February, she won her first two events as pro on the Thai LPGA Tour, then was second behind Lilia Vu in the LPGA Thailand.

Brooke Henderson, at No. 7 the highest-ranked player in the field, had two back-nine bogeys in a 69 that left her 6 under. The Canadian birdied five or her first seven holes. She's the only multiple winner in event history, taking the 2018 and 2019 titles at Ko Olina.

“The front nine was a lot of fun,” Henderson said. “I was making a lot of birdies and giving myself a lot of the good opportunities. Unfortunately, dropped a couple shots here on the back nine. Hopefully, just go out there and do the same thing the first nine holes and just clean this up a little bit.”

Bailey Tardy (65) also was 6 under with Celine Boutier (67), Peiyun Chien (69) and Siyun Liu (70).

Defending champion Hyo Joo Kim was 1 over, following a second-round 78 with a 71.

The Chevron Championship, the first women's major championship of the year, is next week in Texas.

___

AP golf:

https://apnews.com/hub/golf

and

https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

Q. All right, here with Yu Jin Sung. Really solid round out there today. Kept the card pretty clean. What was working so well and how were you able to manage your round today?

YU JIN SUNG: So

YU JIN SUNG: Similar to playing in Korea, but in the LPGA it’s obviously my first stage, so I was a little bit nervous but I tried to play today as if I was playing in Korea.

Q. And you did that quite well. I mean, to be in this position with the lead with one more day, what would it mean to win out here? It’s kind of crazy.

YU JIN SUNG:

Q. There were a couple low scores out there but in terms of all the leaders everyone was about the same. Just how tough was and how -- was it any different at all from the first two days?

YU JIN SUNG: Wouldn’t say it was difficult per se today. It’s just that my game -- just I didn’t play my best game. I think my group today, our play kind of intertwined, like -- yeah, not the smoothest play.

Yeah, so our group there were a lot of ups and downs and wasn’t the smoothest, so that was a little bit tough. But the course condition was great. Similar to yesterday.

Q. A few years ago, Sei Young Kim won this tournament as a rookie. Not this course but this tournament. Very special shots that she made. Kind of a two-part question: Do you know Sei Young and is she someone you looked up to? Because so many players are bunched near the top is it going to take something special tomorrow to win?

YU JIN SUNG: So there is a bit of an age difference between me and Sei Young so I don’t know her personally. But I do know she’s a great player.

And then in terms of tomorrow I think I just have to like play to my strength. Just think about the good things that really work well for me in order to like stand out of the pack.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports