At the end of a dawn-to-dusk day at Bulle Rock, Ai Miyazato and Pat Hurst were tied atop the leader board after three rounds of the LPGA Championship - but all eyes were on one of the golfers right behind them.
Sinking a birdie putt on the last green, Michelle Wie pulled within one shot of the co-leaders and put herself into position to contend for her first major title today in the final round in Havre de Grace.
"This course still owes me a really good round. I'm going to try to shoot it and see what happens," said Wie, 16, who shot a 71 yesterday.
The co-leaders and Wie are among 13 golfers within three strokes of each other after 54 holes.
"It should be exciting [today]. I will be nervous," said Miyazato, 20, who is Japan's version of Wie - a soaring, young talent who has become a major sports attraction in her country.
Three-time defending champion Annika Sorenstam is six shots back after shooting 75 yesterday.
"It's never too late, but things have got to change," she said.
Wie didn't play as well yesterday as she did in Friday's second round, in which she shot 68. Her drives tended to drift to the left and into trouble yesterday, and she didn't sink many key putts. She seemed destined to end on a down note after missing a short par putt on No. 17.
"Just a bad putt. I pulled it to the left," she said.
But she regrouped with the birdie on No. 18.
"I was pretty [angry] after 17. I was ready to bite someone's head off," Wie said. "So I think I kind of channeled that frustration into a good hole."
Wie seemingly had a built-in advantage yesterday because she only had to play 18 holes; most of the rest of the field had to start at 8 a.m. and finish their second rounds, which had been delayed by Friday's rains.
But Wie's erratic play offset whatever advantage she had. She birdied the first hole, bogeyed the next two, birdied No. 4 and bogeyed No. 5. Not until the sixth hole did she finally register a par.
"It was a very up-and-down day," she said. "I didn't feel like I had any real momentum. But I felt like I was playing very solidly. I was hitting the ball great except for a couple of tee shots here and there."
Hurst, who had to play eight holes in the morning before the third round in the afternoon, also had some could-have-beens. She three-putted from 3 feet for a double bogey on No. 9, missed a 4-footer for the lead on No. 15 and missed a 10-footer for birdie on the final hole that would have given her sole possession of the lead. She ended with a 72.
