Rain Rules Day at LPGA Championship

HAVRE DE GRACE, Md., June 13 -- Rarely could the No. 1 player in the world, in any endeavor, finish up play in the middle of one of her sport's most significant events and find perhaps 100 folks -- just a smattering of a crowd -- at the venue to greet her. Yet there was Lorena Ochoa, an icon in her native Mexico and the best women's pro golf has to offer, tapping in for par on the 18th green Saturday night at Bulle Rock Golf Club, closing her third round of the McDonald's LPGA Championship with a friends-and-family-and-volunteers crowd there to see her.

"That's what happens when it rains," Ochoa said. "Hopefully, tomorrow, there are great crowds, and everyone's back."

Rains, with some nearby lightning and thunder, shut down Bulle Rock for 2 hours 19 minutes Saturday afternoon, driving the galleries home and leaving the players twiddling thumbs. When a horn blared at 8:09 p.m. -- indicating darkness was forthcoming and players could finish only the hole they were on -- tour rookie Anna Nordqvist was on the 15th. Calmly, as if the early morning to come didn't matter to her, she buried a 25-foot birdie putt from the fringe to get to 10 under par, taking the outright lead.

There, though, is what leaves a bit of a strange feel to this, the LPGA's second major championship of the year. Four groups remained on the course when play was called, meaning Nordqvist and her closest pursuers -- including Australian Lindsey Wright, 9 under through 15, and South Korean Na Yeon Choi, 8 under through 17 -- have to get up early Sunday morning, finish off their third round, wait around for a few hours, then try to win a major.

"I think I was very, very lucky," said Ochoa, who walked off the 18th green two minutes before the horn blew.

Luck, though, is relative in this situation, and this is what the LPGA Championship -- which is losing both its sponsor and its venue after this year -- is left with headed into Sunday's final round. It is a leader board heavy not on familiar names such as Ochoa, whose third-round 73 left her eight shots back. Rather, it is a hodgepodge of up-and-comers, rookies and barely-established veterans, all in contention to win a major.

Nordqvist, for example, turned 22 just Wednesday, is playing in her first major as a professional and just her fifth LPGA event of her rookie season, and has said all week she is "out here to learn." She could not predict, she said, how she would react to playing three holes Sunday morning, then killing the time before she teed off to try to win a major.

"I haven't done it before," she said, "so I don't have an answer for that."

The only player near the top of the leader board who has an answer for how to win a major is Jiyai Shin, Ochoa's playing partner. Both began the day 3 under, five shots back of Nordqvist's lead. But while Ochoa scuffled, Shin excelled, and shot 69 even with a bogey at the last.

"Some players couldn't finish, so I think I'm lucky," Shin said. "It was a long day. I am tired."

Last year, Shin, now 21, won the Women's British Open, and her personality outshines most of her South Korean compatriots on the tour. She wears Jack Nicklaus's Golden Bear logo on her pants, spectacles on her round face, and her easy and earnest smile satisfied a large Korean following over her front nine. The LPGA has embraced its multicultural nature, one embodied by this tournament. In the final dozen groups Saturday came representatives of nine countries, from leader Nordqvist of Sweden to Hall of Famer Karrie Webb of Australia to Ochoa from Mexico.

None of those nationalities, however, is more prominent than South Korea, which made up exactly a third of the final 12 pairings. Choi, a 21-year-old who hasn't won on tour, is closest to the top, two shots back of Nordqvist with only the 18th to play Sunday morning. Jin Young Pak, a 22-year-old who is playing in her first major and has never finished in the top 10 on tour, went to bed Saturday night as the top player who had completed her round, using a 69 to move to 7-under 209.

Shin, though, is ranked fifth, the highest-ranked South Korean in the world. She is followed by 10 more countrywomen in the top 25, including the group's pioneer, Hall of Famer Se Ri Pak.

That, though, puts a constant question to Americans: Do they need to play better to save the tour? No American has finished atop the LPGA money list since Betsy King did so in 1993. No South Korean has led the money list yet, either, but 22 South Korean players have won at least one tournament since 2003. Thirteen of the previous 17 winners of major tournaments were non-Americans.

"I think it's important for morale, especially for Americans, to have us all playing well," said Floridian Cristie Kerr, who entered this event leading the money list but sits 10 shots back of Nordqvist.

The Americans closest to the lead when play ceased Saturday night were Kristy McPherson of South Carolina, who is four shots back with a hole to play Sunday, and Angela Stanford and Stacy Lewis, both of Texas, who were in the clubhouse at 5 under. Eleven players ended play Saturday within five shots of Nordqvist's lead.

Nordqvist, though, seemed undeterred, almost oblivious. She said she spent Saturday's rain delay in the dining area, "having fun with some friends." And the plan today: complete Saturday's unfinished business, return to the hotel for some rest, tee it up again, then win a major. If she does that, there just might be more folks at the 18th green to greet her.