Yuka Saso carded a second straight one-under-par 70 to slightly slip for a share of 42nd place after three rounds in the LPGA Tour’s Volunteer of America Classic in The Colony, Texas Saturday, Oct. 1 (Sunday in Manila).
After shooting two birdies at the front nine, the Fil-Japanese had a rollercoaster performance at the last nine holes by turning in three birdies and four bogeys for a three-round total of 213.
She had earlier rounds of 73 and 70.
Saso’s feat put her 11 strokes behind co-leaders Xiyu Lin and Charley Hull, who fired 69 and 71, respectively, for 202.
Trailing Hull by two shots prior to the third round, Lin waxed hot by posting three birdies against a lone bogey on the par-3 16th hole to catch up at the leaderboard.
She had previous rounds of 65 and 68.
Lin, a 26-year-old from Guangzhou, is chasing her first LPGA title.
Her best finish was a runner-up effort in March at Thailand after losing a playoff to Dane Nanna Koerstz Madsen.
Hull, meanwhile, had an even-par 71 following rounds of 67 and 64.
She had a bogey on the fifth sandwiched with two birdies before stumbling with a double bogey on the par-4 10th hole. She made it up with a birdie 3 on the 15th.
New Zealand's Lydia Ko and France's Celine Boutier shared third on 203 with Canada's Maddie Szeryk fifth on 204.
Thailand's Moriya Jutanugarn and Atthaya Thitikul and South Korea's Ryu So-yeon were together on 205.