Golf Central – Third Round
Champions Golf Club (Cypress Creek Course) – Houston, Texas
Saturday, December 12
75th U.S. Women’s Open – Third Round Leaderboard
| Hinako Shibuno | -4 |
| Amy Olson | -3 |
| Moriya Jutanugarn | -1 |
| Ji Yeong Kim2 | -1 |
| Lydia Ko | E |
| Yealimi Noh | E |
| Megan Khang | E |
| Kaitlyn Papp (a) | E |
**PROGRAMMING REMINDER** – Live Final Round coverage of the 2020 U.S. Women’s Open will begin Sunday at 10 a.m. ET on Golf Channel, followed by live coverage on NBC at 2 p.m. ET**
On Hinako Shibuno (4-under, 1st)
Karen Stupples on Shibuno’s post-round practice – “We’re watching her practice and she’s looking disgusted with the shots that she’s playing. This is no way to cool down on the eve of the final round of the championship that you’re leading. There’s something she’s not happy with, it’s not the ‘Smiling Cinderella.’ If you contrast this to how Amy Olson was practicing, she was happy-go-lucky…obviously Shibuno did not hit it as well today…she’s not the longest of players off of the tee and she’s having to hit longer shots into the greens.”
Brandel Chamblee – “A little bit of Bryson DeChambeau on the eve of the final round of the U.S. Open. He was frustrated and went over to the range to blow off some team as much as to solve some riddles. It certainly looks like Hinako Shibuno is blowing a little steam off…not the demeanor you would think is leading the U.S. Open, but she’s coming off of a round where it was exceedingly difficult and an exceedingly long golf course.”
Lisa Cornwell to Stupples – “Will your expectations (for Shibuno) change now that you’ve seen this?”
Stupples – “Having seen the way Shibuno is trying to find something, yes a little bit. When you stand on that first tee tomorrow trying to win the U.S. Women’s Open, you need to know that you have it, you don’t want to hope that you have it.”
Chamblee – “She was an incredible scrambler today… she showed that she was up to the task with a number of beautiful pitches throughout the day. With inclement weather in the forecast tomorrow, it could be another day of mud balls and scrambling, and it could be Hinako Shibuno getting her second major championship because of her skill around the greens.
Amanda Blumenhurst – “I was very surprised at the aggressive lines that she was taking…she plays with a big smile on her face, freewheels it and lets it fly. She only hit 11 greens and it was because of the aggressive lines she was taking at those pins. Her short game really saved her today…she really had to rely heavily on her chipping. It could have been much higher than 3-over.”
On Amy Olson (3-under, 2nd)
Chamblee – “I would say that 2020 is shaping up as the year of the underdogs…Olson has never won on the LPGA Tour, but she has come close in some major championships. Something about her ball flight…she could make her first victory on the LPGA Tour a major championship.”
Stupples – “She has the most fantastic attitude because she know what she wants and she has great belief in her abilities. When you win 20 times in college, you know you’re capable of doing it…I can’t help but think back to Nick Faldo. He changed his whole swing, he changed everything about his game so he could contend. Amy Olson has basically reworked everything about her game…she’s a work-in-progress and I think she’s seeing the fruits of her labor.”
Blumenhurst – “I really do believe she is ready. It’s a hard transition to go from college and amateur success…she has learned so much. We saw in 2018, she was going into the 72nd hole of the Evian Championship with a lead and needed a par to win, a bogey to tie, she ends up making a doubling the par-5 18th. What I’m hoping for Amy is that she’s putting these all of these bad days together and using them as a learning experience so that tomorrow she will know what to do and what not do.”
-NBC SPORTS-
