Evian Championship 2014: Day 3 LPGA Leaderboard Analysis, Highlights and More

The LPGA's fifth and final major of the 2014 season kicked into gear on Saturday with the third round of the Evian Championship. Following cut day on Friday, the field has been whittled down to the best players the sport has to offer. 

Defending champion Suzann Pettersen was in contention heading into the third round at six under par. Her third round was a mixed bag, but she remains within striking distance of the leaders heading into Sunday's final round. 

Brittany Lincicome held the lead coming into Saturday but bombed in the third round with three double bogeys on the front nine, with two coming on her first two holes for the day. She shot 65 on Friday but matched that total through 15 holes in Round 3.

Here's a look at the 54-hole leaderboard, along with highlights and analysis as we head into the final 18 holes of the year's final major tournament. 

Pos.	Player	Rd 3 Score	To Par
1	Hyo-Joo Kim	+1 (72)	-8
2	Karrie Webb	-1 (70)	-7
3	Mi Jung Hur	+1 (72)	-6
T4	Anna Nordqvist	-1 (70)	-5
T4	Mariajo Uribe	+1 (70)	-5
T6	Brittany Lincicome	+6 (77)	-4
T6	Na Yeon Choi	-4 (67)	-4
T6	Ha-Na Jang	-3 (68)	-4
T6	Lydia Ko	+1 (72)	-4
T10	Three Players	-	-3

Full leaderboard can be found at EvianChampionship.com

The sad part of Lincicome's third round was that you could tell how much playing well meant to her after Friday. Here's what she said to reporters after taking the 36-hole lead, via The Associated Press (h/t ESPN.com):

"

Even when I felt like I didn't hit a good shot today I kind of got away with it. Golf isn't always a perfect game and hitting great shots.

[...]

At this point I would take any win. It's been a while. When I'm playing well, it's just kind of light and easy and just having a good time, going with the flow, and not paying attention to the leaderboard.

"

Lincicome's last win in a major tournament came in 2009 when she won the Kraft Nabisco Championship. Her last win of any kind was at the Canadian Women's Open in August 2011. Coming out of the gate the way she did, as noted by the tournament's official Twitter feed, squashed all that goodwill from Friday. 

Stacy Lewis, the top-ranked player on the LPGA Tour, hasn't been able to put everything together this weekend. She started off slowly with a 70 in the first round and turned it up a little with a 67 on Friday, but a two-over 73 on Saturday likely ended her chances to contend. 

The American star did make a move early with birdies on No. 3 and No. 4 to put her in a tie for the lead at seven under. She would be all over the map after that, with six bogeys and two birdies on the last 14 holes. 

One of the most consistent players all weekend has been Anna Nordqvist, who hasn't had one standout round but played efficient enough to be in contention heading into Sunday. Karen Stupples of the Golf Channel singled out Nordqvist for the way she's played the course:

It's a fair assessment of what Nordqvist has done. She had a hiccup late in the third round with a double bogey on No. 17, which made her round look weaker in retrospect, but she was spotless before that, with three birdies in the round. 

Considering that everyone ahead of her also shot in the 70s on Saturday, Nordqvist should have tremendous confidence heading into the final round. 

Moving to the top of the leaderboard, Mi Jung Hur started out playing mistake-free golf with two birdies and no bogeys through 15 holes. She wasn't doing anything fancy in the third round but was as steady as anyone on the course. 

Then, unfortunately, the 16th hole knocked her down. A double bogey dropped her into a tie for second place and left her scrambling to finish the round with positive momentum heading into the final round. 

Pettersen did what all athletes want to do—have a chance to win at the end. The Evian Championship's Twitter feed said the defending champion was back in business after consecutive birdies on No. 9 and No. 10:

There were hiccups on the back nine for Pettersen. Notably, bogeys on 11 and 14 put some distance between her and the top of the leaderboard. 

At the very top of the leaderboard, Hyo-Joo Kim is riding the wave of her record-breaking 61 on Thursday. She may be just 19 years old, but the South Korean star hasn't crumbled under the pressure of playing in a major, via Golf Channel: 

A one-over 72 on Friday did leave Kim with questions to answer on Saturday. Though she failed to improve on that score in the third round, the teenager is still ahead of the pack. It's also hard to fault her when you can look at the leaderboard to see that there weren't a lot of low scores to be found. 

Based on how the course has played the last two days, expect another high-scoring round on Sunday. That doesn't make for great golf on television, but it does leave the door open for a lot of players to make moves. It will also be interesting to see how Kim responds, given her age, to being 18 holes away from a major title. 

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