SYLVANIA, OH (WTOL) - Nelly Korda continued Friday's momentum at Highland Meadows with another stellar round Saturday in the third round to take the lead of the Marathon Classic in Sylvania.
Korda began the day only one stroke off the lead at 10 under par. By the end of her round, she had a two-stroke lead.
The third round got off to a late start at 10 a.m. due to heavy rain early Saturday morning. With the possibility of rain later in the evening looming, the LPGA elected to do duel tee offs and have groups of three to ensure the completion of the round.
Korda began her round on the first hole in the last pairing of the day with leader Gerina Piller and Lexi Thompson.
After scoring a par on the first two holes, she went on role with birdies on four of the next five holes.
Korda bogeyed the ninth, but scored two more birdies on her final two holes of the after to bring her score to 15 under par.
Korda says she is excited to be in the lead, but her work is not done.
"There's still 18 more holes and a lot of golf yet to be played," Korda said. "I'm just going to stay patient and see how it goes."
Gerina Piller, who lead after both round 1 and round 2, struggled a bit in the third round.
Piller birdied the first hole. But she stumbled with back-to-back bogeys on the eighth and ninth holes. Though she birdied twice more on the 15th and 17th, she had lost the lead for the first time in the tournament.
Piller is tied for third at 12 under par.
Lexi Thompson, who like Korda, made a surge up the leaderboard on Friday, could not continue her momentum into the weekend.
She finished with three birdies and a bogey to improve her score to 12 under par.
Aditi Ashok, Sung Hyun Park, Peiyun Chien and Sandra Changkija, who came from nowhere to have the best round of the day, are also tied for third at 12 under.
Changkija began the day tied for 91st at 6 under par.
Changkija began her day scoring birdies on two of her first four holes.
When she made the turn toward the back nine, she went on one of the best nine-hole runs in the tournament. Changkija scored five birdies on the back nine, but a bogey on the 14th kept her from capturing second place.
In-Kyung Kim is in sole possession of second place at 13 under par.
Kim began the round tied for second place at 10 under par.
After scoring pars on the first six holes, Kim birdied the seventh and ninth to improve to 12 under par. She dropped a stroke with a bogey on the eleventh. However, Kim recovered to birdie two of the last three holes.
Defending champion Lydia Ko, whose first-round struggles kept her out of contention for most of the week, tied Changkija for the best round of the day with a 65.
Ko scored six birdies in a bogey-free round to improve to 7 under on the tournament.
Toledo-born Stacy Lewis stayed even on her third round, scoring two birdies and two bogeys. She remains at 2 under par.
Play begins on Championship Sunday at 7:08 a.m. with the leaders teeing off at 12:55 p.m.