Hannah Green, Minjee Lee take lead in Singapore, Kiwi raises home hopes in New Zealand

Australians Hannah Green and Minjee Lee moved to the top of the leaderboard Saturday to lead by one stroke after three rounds of the HSBC Women’s World Championship.

Green, the 2019 Women’s PGA Championship winner and who won the Singapore tournament in 2024, shot a four-under 68 and three-time major winner Lee a 69 to post three-round totals of 11-under 205 at the Sentosa Golf Club.

American Angel Yin (68) and Haeran Ryu (70) of South Korea were tied for third in the LPGA tournament.

With the final group on the eighth hole, six players were tied for the lead at nine under. Yin took the lead for the first time with a birdie from off the green on the 10th, displacing her fellow American Auston Kim, who had led after the first two rounds.

Kim had back-to-back bogeys on the seventh and eighth to fall out of the lead, but it could have been worse. After seeing her ball plugged in hazard off the green on the eighth hole and having to return to the fairway to hit her fifth shot, she sank a 20-foot putt for bogey to minimise the damage.

Kim finished with a 73 and was tied for sixth at eight under, three behind Green and Lee.

“Definitely, there are a lot of birdies to be made but it’s very easy to make bogey,” Green said. “So I think just limiting as many of those as possible.

“I’ve been hitting the ball into the greens, so if I can continue to do that, and even though I’m playing with Minjee, we are good friends, I don’t want to get too caught up in what her scores are.”

Yin said the margins were close in the third round.

“Good golf and good luck. Honestly, there’s nothing much you can do to it,” Yin said. “There’s a lot of instances today where it was like one hole, I made this unbelievable up-and-down. That’s skill and luck to me. So get lucky and get good.”

Lee won her first major in 2021 at the Evian Championship, her second at the US Women’s Open in 2022 and her third at last year’s Women’s PGA Championship.

Top-ranked Jeeno Thitikul, who won last week’s tournament in her native Thailand, shot 70 Saturday that left her at three under. She was tied with defending champion Lydia Ko and Brooke Henderson, who each shot 71, all eight strokes behind the leading Australians.

The 72-player, no-cut tournament is the second of three stops on the LPGA’s early-year Asian swing, with the final one next week at Hainan Island, China.

Meanwhile, a late surge from New Zealand’s Daniel Hillier on Saturday handed him a golden opportunity to claim the New Zealand Open.

The highest-ranked player in the field at Millbrook this week showed his class by finishing birdie-birdie-par-eagle-birdie to thrill a huge home crowd eager to see a New Zealander win the national title for the first time since 2017.

A runner-up here in 2024, Hillier signed for a seven-under-par 64 to sit at 18 under through 54 holes, and has another Kiwi, Kerry Mountcastle (64), and Australia’s Curtis Luck (63) right behind him at 17 under, setting up what should be a super showdown on Sunday.

Also well in the hunt for the Brodie Breeze Trophy is Australian Lucas Herbert, whose nine-under 62 lifted him into outright fourth at 16 under, three shots ahead of a quartet tied for fifth.

New Zealand amateur teenager Yuki Miya, the overnight leader, was not able to keep pace, dropping to a share of fifth at 13 under after a 70.

The lowest round of the day belonged to South Korea’s Chan Choi, who matched the Championship course record with a 10-under-par 61. After making the cut on the number, he is now in a share of eighth at 12-under.