LOS ANGELES – Thailand\u2019s Patty Tavatanakit is poised to make her first LPGA title a major triumph after firing a five-under par 67 Saturday for a five-shot lead at the ANA Inspiration.<\/p>\n
The 21-year-old had seven birdies in her 67 at Mission Hills in Rancho Mirage, California, showing no sign of nerves as she built ruthlessly on her one-shot overnight lead. She was three strokes in front of defending champion Lee Mi-rim of South Korea and American Ally Ewing. Ewing climbed the leaderboard with a bogey-free six-under par 66 while Lee, who won the rescheduled 2020 edition last September, signed for a 68. <\/p>\n
Chinese veteran Feng Shanshan, playing her first LPGA event in more than a year, carded an even par 72 for sole possession of third place on eight-under 208. Former world number one Park In-bee of South Korea (70) and England\u2019s Charley Hull (71) shared fourth on 209. Reigning world No. 1 Ko Jin-young of South Korea and former number one Lydia Ko of New Zealand were in a group on 210, along with Mexico\u2019s Gaby Lopez and Thailand\u2019s Moriya Jutanugarn.<\/p>\n
Patty said she would be focusing on how to improve on Sunday, not on her chance at a major title or the big names chasing her. \u201cYou know, today I\u2019m going to leave it behind,\u201d she said of an impressive round that she opened with three straight birdies.<\/p>\n
Patty rolled in a long birdie putt at the ninth to make the turn four-under for the day and drained another birdie bomb at 11 to push her lead to five shots for the first time. She followed a bogey at the 12th with a four-foot birdie at 13 and made another long birdie putt at 15 to push her lead to six before giving a stroke back at 17 — where she was unable to get up and down for par from a greenside bunker.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a great day, acknowledged it, and it\u2019s in the past now,\u201d Patty said. \u201cAll I can think about is what can I do tomorrow, what can I improve from today\u2019s round? \u201cI was getting a little tired at the end. What can I do to keep my energy level up throughout the day tomorrow? That\u2019s going to be my goal. \u201cAnd just stay calm out there,\u201d she said. \u201cI feel like I did that pretty well. Whatever the outcome is I\u2019ll be really happy. It\u2019s been a good week so far.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LOS ANGELES – Thailand\u2019s Patty Tavatanakit is poised to make her first LPGA title a major triumph after firing a five-under par 67 Saturday for a five-shot lead at the ANA Inspiration. The 21-year-old had seven birdies in her 67 at Mission Hills in Rancho […]<\/p>\n
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