Sorenstam Alone at the Top

Annika Sorenstam need only look back as far as Greg Norman in April’s Masters to find the dangers of taking a big lead into the final round of a major championship.

Last year, Sorenstam was able to sneak up on the field and win the U.S. Women’s Open. This time she is the marked woman, put in a very Norman-like situation. The tournament is hers to win--or lose.

Sorenstam’s 69 on Saturday at Pine Needles put the 25-year-old Swede at four-under-par 206 for 54 holes, three strokes ahead of Brandie Burton and four in front of Jane Geddes.

“Fortunately, this is not a golf course that someone can kill,” Sorenstam said. “Someone has to play well and I have to play badly [to lose today].”

That was pretty much the same scenario facing Norman in April at Augusta National.

“Nothing is safe,” Pat Bradley said after shooting a 67 to move within five strokes of the lead. “I don’t see Annika backing down really. But with five or six people right behind her it might get her attention if someone makes a move.”

Norman took a seemingly insurmountable six-stroke lead into the final round of the Masters only to finish five strokes behind winner Nick Faldo.

And there are enough big names around to put the kind of pressure on Sorenstam to make today the kind of tension test it is meant to be.

Bradley, who won the Open in 1981 when Sorenstam was 10 years old, was at one-over 211 along with Tammie Green after a strong 67, matching Sorenstam’s round Friday as the lowest of the tournament.

Laura Davies, whose length and solid short game make her always a threat to put up a very low score, was six behind with four others after shooting a 70.

Sorenstam’s third round included two bogeys and a double-bogey on No. 14, where she three-putted from 15 feet, missing a four-footer.

“She proved today she is not the iron woman,” Geddes said. “I think there is a lot of golf to go.”

Sorenstam stuck with her strength, keeping the ball in play, as she hit 13 of the 14 driving fairways Saturday. She has hit 39 of 42 in the tournament.

She did show a little drop-off on the greens, however, needing 32 putts on the fast, sharply contoured putting surfaces after using 29 and 28 in the first two rounds.

Sorenstam was at her best from long range. Four of her five birdies came on putts of 15 feet or longer. Twice she bogeyed when she hit green-side bunkers and couldn’t get up and down.

The double bogey on No. 14 came when her six-iron from 161 yards ran through the green into the rough. After a drop because a cameraman had kicked her ball, she chipped to 15 feet and three putted, dropping into a tie with Burton at the time.

Burton, however, bogeyed Nos. 16 and 17, and when Sorenstam rolled in a 30-footer for birdie on 17 the lead was back to three strokes.

“I felt the momentum was back and everything was under control,” Sorenstam said.

Burton, who was paired with Sorenstam on Saturday and matched her 69, will play in the final group with her today.

“I’m not worried about Annika,” Burton said. “I’m worried about the golf course.”

Sorenstam can become the first woman to successfully defend her Open title since Betsy King in 1990.