Megan Khang finished alone at the top of the leaderboard with a three-stroke lead at 11-under after a third-round 68 at the CPKC Women’s Open. This is the first time the American has held the 54-hole lead in her Tour career in her 191st Tour start.
“I was hitting it really good today. You know, it’s always good when the ball striking is there. I hit some pretty good shots to about 15 feet the first few holes; couldn’t hole them. Jack (Fulghum, my caddie) just kind of reassured me out there, like, ‘hey, you’re putting good strokes on it. They’ll drop soon,’” said Khang, who hit 11 of 14 fairways and 13 of 18 greens. “Made a good up and down on 4 and was able to kind of keep the momentum going and make some short puts coming down for par, too.”
Khang opened with six-straight pars before her first two birdies at the 7th and 8th. After the turn, two bogeys at the 10th and 12th brought the rest of the field back into the mix, but she kept her head up to capitalize on the reachable par-4 14th, making the first of four birdies in her closing five holes.
“It was huge. I mean, with I want to say 13 being reachable, I had a feeling like a lot of people, a lot of the longer hitters were going to be able to get to that green, possibly make eagle, if not birdie or par. And I just wanted to give myself a chance up there. I knew where the pin was it was gettable. Yeah, I mean, that kind of started it all,” said Khang. “I had to hit some really good shots going in; missed few good puts. Again, stroking it well and just made sure that I wasn’t getting too frustrated with missing puts.”
South Korea’s Sei Young Kim lies in solo second at 8-under after carding a 67 featuring an ace on the 184-yard par-3 8th and another eagle at the par-4 14th.
Fellow Korean Jin Young Ko, the 2019 champion, sits in third at 6-under, after posting a 71.
England’s Georgia Hall (70) and Japan’s Yuka Saso (72) are tied for fourth at 5-under.
