SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. – Inbee Park is one round from making history by winning the first three majors of the year.

The top-ranked Park has a four-stroke lead through three rounds at the U.S. Women’s Open. She a shot 1-under 71 in harsh conditions Saturday and is 10 under for the tourney.

A fellow South Korean, I.K. Kim, had a 73 to remain in second but lost two strokes to Park. With the wind whipping, the greens fast and the pin placements tricky, Park was the only player to shoot under par for the round.

No one has won the first three majors in a year when there were at least four.

“I’m just going to try to do the same thing that I did for the last three days,” Park said. “Yeah, it will be a big day, but it’s just a round of golf, and I just try not to think about it so much.”

Park. a five-time winner this year, made three straight bogeys on the 11th, 12th and 13th holes to briefly look vulnerable, though she still led by three strokes. Just in time, her brilliant putting resurfaced.

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She holed a long downhill birdie putt on No. 14, then made another lengthy birdie try on the 15th.

PGA: A triple bogey for Bill Haas. Double bogeys for Andres Romero and Roberto Castro. They still wound up in a four-way tie for the lead in the AT&T National at Bethesda, Md., with James Driscoll, whose third round was pleasantly dull by comparison.

Castro put the perfect finishing touch on a most wild day at Congressional when he hit his approach into the water left of the 18th green, then chipped in for par from 80 feet to salvage a par 71.

Haas made nine birdies and had to settle for a 68, courtesy of two wedge shots that cost him four shots, including his triple bogey on the beastly 11th hole. Romero had a three-shot lead at one point, and then it was gone. He went from the water to a bunker on the 11th for double bogey and followed that with a bogey on the next hole. He made six pars the rest of the way for a 70.

Driscoll had a 68, the only player in the field to break 70 all three rounds. Coming off a bogey on the 15th, Driscoll thought he might be headed for another with a poor tee shot. But he knocked a 4-iron out of the rough, barely got onto the green and rolled in a 25-foot birdie.

SENIORS: Fred Couples birdied three of the final five holes for a 3-under 67 and a two-stroke lead after the third round of the Players Championship at Pittsburgh.

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Couples completed a 62 in the morning in the rain-delayed second round and had a 15-under 195 total at Fox Chapel. Kenny Perry was second in the Champions Tour major. He finished off a 63 in the morning and backed it up with another 63 in the afternoon.

Duffy Waldorf was third at 11 under after rounds of 67 and 66.

EUROPEAN: Dutchman Joost Luiten shot a 6-under 66 to take a one-stroke lead after the second round of the Irish Open at Maynooth, outside Dublin.

Luiten, the Lyoness Open winner in Austria this month, had a 13-under 203 total. Pablo Larrazabal of Spain was second after a 66.

 


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