Ko climbs to 13th at Evian Championship

By Ko, of course, who fired an 8-under in the final round of last year’s contest to stroll to a six-shot, come-from-behind win. “So I was able to birdie on those”.

In Gee Chun, the leading rookie on the LPGA Tour, will take a two-shot lead in to the third round of the Evian Championship after shooting a superb five-under-par 66 in rainy and overcast conditions.

“I just seemed to hit a lot of good wedge shots today and hit a lot of good putts, ” said Johnston, coming off a 28th-place tie last week in OH in the DAP Championship. “The greens are getting softer this year”.

The world No. 1 is in a battle with second- and third-ranked Ariya Jutanugarn and Brooke Henderson for the Rolex Annika Major Award.

The 41-year-old Queenslander won the Evian Masters in 2006 – well before it became a major in 2013 – and has several other good finishes to her credit including a second place in 2014.

China’s Shanshan Feng is outright third at 13-under with another former US Women’s Open victor, So Yeon Ryu holding down fourth place at 12-under. Annie Park, joined by her mom and older sister, hit four landmarks in Paris on a whirlwind half-day tour.”That was fun”.

But it will be hard to match her performance previous year, let alone improve it. “She keeps things light and does some dances out there”.

Jutanugarn leads the LPGA Tour with five wins this year, and all of those have been won without using a driver.

South Korean So Yeon Ryu, who has been remarkably consistent with only one bogey in three rounds – on her 10th hole on Saturday – was seven shots behind Chun in fourth place.

When Ko sank her first birdie of the day, a 15-meter effort on the fifth hole, it drew a rueful smile from Pettersen, who had just missed with her birdie attempt from a similar distance. Ko won this event by six strokes a year ago when she finished at 16-under par, but each of the previous two winners won by two strokes or fewer.

“She’s a very, very good player”.

“I think it’s a really good honor for me”, Chun said of the opportunity to break the scoring record. He won the series-opening DAP Championship last week in a playoff in OH to wrap up a PGA Tour card.

U.S. Open victor Brittany Lang had a nightmare with two double bogeys and three bogeys in a 5-over 76.

Chun was smiling again after the next hole, another birdie.