Taipei, Feb. 19 (CNA) World No. 1 Yani Tseng of Taiwan eagled her final hole to cap a two-under-par 70 on Saturday and take a one-shot lead after the third round of the Honda LPGA Thailand, the LPGA Tour's first tournament of the season.
Tseng, who started the day one shot behind I. K. Kim of South Korea, lost her spot at the top of the leaderboard with bogies on the 16th and 17th holes of the Pattaya Old Course at Siam Country Club before retaking the lead with the eagle on the par-5 18th.
The 22-year-old, winner of the Women's Australian Open and the ANZ Ladies Masters the last two weeks, had a nine-under-par 207 heading into Sunday's final round of the US$1.45 million tournament, one shot ahead of American Michelle Wie and Kim.
Paula Creamer of the United States was another shot back at 209 and Australian Karrie Webb was fifth at 210.
The Taiwanese golfer had an up-and-down day, starting off with a double bogey on the 2nd hole and then scoring five birdies and a bogey between the 7th and 15th holes. She had only eight pars for the round.
Tseng finished third in last year's LPGA Thailand event, six shots behind Ai Miyazato of Japan, but this year the Taiwanese star has more at stake as she tries to defend her No. 1 ranking.
Her closest rival in the Rolex world rankings, world No. 2 Jiyai Shin of South Korea, struggled to a 76 in Saturday's third round, leaving her 13 shots behind Tseng.
Taiwan's Candie Kung tied for 30th at 219 and Amy Hung was 39th at 221. (By Chris Wang) enditem/ls