Kraft Nabisco Championship - 3rd Round

Karen Stupples took the lead early on Saturday and she carries it into the final round of the Kraft Nabisco Championship.  Yani Tseng and Suzann Pettersen are tied for second at -9, one shot back while Song-Hee Kim and Lorena Ochoa are tied for fourth at -7.

Stupples tied for the lead at -7 with a birdie at 2, then took it for herself with another at 3.  Another birdie at 5 gave Karen a three-shot lead.  She gave one back with a bogey at 7 but regained it with birdie at 9.  Tseng moved into second place at -7 with a birdie at 11.  Stupples missed her six-foot par putt at 11 to cut the lead to one, which Yani quickly erased when she birdied from short range at 13.  Karen immediately bounced back - a terrific approach at 12 set up a four-footer for birdie which regained the lead.  She held that lead the rest of the way - a 25-footer for birdie at 17 put her into double-digits and kept her one step ahead of Tseng and Pettersen.  Suzann closed strong, with five birdies over her last ten holes as Yani off-set a bogey at 16 with four back-nine birdies.

Over the front nine, second-round leader Song-Hee Kim couldn't respond to Stupples' charge.  Kim bogeyed 4 to fall two shots behind and bogeyed 8 to make the turn down by four.  Three birdies in four holes to start the back nine drew Song-Hee back to within one but she played the last five holes in +1.  World Number One Ochoa lurked all day - down by as many as five shots, at one point - and birdied the last two to reach -7.

Logically, the winner is going to come from those five players.  Karrie Webb is five shots back and Brittany Lang and Cristie Kerr are down six, each with only a handful of players to pass, so one of them could make the big Sunday run.  Of the top five, four are already major champions - Stupples won the 2004 British, Tseng and Pettersen are LPGA Champions, and Ochoa has a British and KNC title.  With the slew of first-time major champions we've been crowning in recent years and the fact that her up-and-down Saturday didn't knock her out of contention, I have to expect Song-Hee Kim to make the Kraft Nabisco her first LPGA victory.