Korda Moves into Lead in Australia

Jessica Korda, the 18-year-old daughter of 1998 Australian Open tennis champion Petr Korda, carded an even-par 73 to take a one-shot lead heading into the final round of the Women's Australian Open. The LPGA Tour event is taking place at Royal Melbourne Golf Club.

Royal Melbourne played so difficult Saturday that no player broke 70. Through 54 holes, only nine players are under par for the tournament.

Korda stands at 4-under 215, while one stroke back are Aussie Nikki Campbell, who shot the low round of the day - a 3-under 70, 36-hole leader So Yeon Ryu (76) and Hee Kyung Seo (75) - both of South Korea.

Another stroke back at 217 in a tie for fifth are American Katie Futcher (71), Canada's Lorie Kane (72) and world No. 1 Yani Tseng, who carded a 71 that involved four birdies and two bogeys. Tseng is the two-time defending champion in this tournament when it was held at Commonwealth Golf Club.

Korda is looking forward to the final round and perhaps getting her first LPGA victory. "My dad was world No. 2 and I told him I want to beat that," Korda said of her Czech-born father, who won the tennis Grand Slam event also in Melbourne.

"I started well but as things started going on and on, I started feeling shaky as the wind gusted towards the end of the day. I finished pretty strong and kept at level par," she said. "I saw a couple of leaderboards but honestly I was trying to work out everything. The wind was picking up and coming back down. I had to back off a lot of shots."

Tseng is pleased with where she is heading into Sunday. "I think I'm in very good position, especially with a course like this," the reigning LPGA Player of the Year said. "So, tomorrow I'll play more aggressive and try to get as many birdies as I can."

Seo echoed the thoughts of the other players when describing Royal Melbourne - which is hosting its first-ever women's pro tournament, "It's one of the hardest courses I have ever played," she said. "It's probably in the top five or the top three and sometimes the breeze is quite crazy. Also the greens are firm and fast, plus the undulations. Most of the players struggled at times, but that's golf."

American Stacy Lewis started the third round two strokes out of the lead but carded a 77 Saturday and is now even-par. Other scores included a third straight 75 by Karrie Webb; Norway's Suzann Pettersen's 74; and 14-year-old New Zealand amateur Lydia Ko posting one of the day's rare sub-par rounds, a 72, which put her into a tie for 18th at 3-over 222.

For all the scores, visit http://www.lpgascoring.com/public/leaderboard.aspx?TournamentID=27853.

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