Nasa Hataoka leads after third round of 2023 United States Women’s Open

Nasa Hataoka (YouTube)

Round three is in the books at the 2023 United States Women’s Open from Pebble Beach, California, and the leader is Nasa Hataoka of Kasama, Japan. On Saturday, Hataoka was simply sensational as she posted a third round score of six-under-par 66 to improve to -7.

Hataoka began the tournament with a score of three-under-par 69, but struggled in the second round on Friday with a score of two-over-par 74. In Hataoka’s opening round, she had six birdies and three bogeys. Like second round leader Bailey Tardy of the United States, Hataoka was simply more comfortable on the front nine than the back nine. Hataoka birdied the second, fourth, sixth, and seventh holes for a 36 hole score of -4. However from the 10th to the 18th holes, she went one-over par as she bogeyed the 10th, 11th and 15th holes and birdied the 13th and 17th holes.

In round two, Hataoka birdied the second and sixth holes to improve to -5. But then dropped to -1 with bogeys on the seventh, eighth, 11th, and 16th holes. Then in round three, Hataoka did not have a bogey during her round and had six birdies. She was one-under-par on the first, sixth, 10th, 13th, 16th, and 17th holes.

Three more golfers are in contention and within striking distance of Hataoka. In second place is Allisen Corpuz of Honolulu, Hawaii at -6. Corpuz was the co-leader after three rounds of the Chevron Championship in April.  Meanwhile, Tardy and Hyo Joo Kim of South Korea are at -4 and tied for third place. Kim won the 2014 Evian Championship.

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