Teske Takes Lead With Sizzling 66

The desert sun plays different tricks on different people. During Saturday’s sweltering third round of the Nabisco Championship at Mission Hills Country Club, Se Ri Pak developed full-on back-nine meltdown, Annika Sorenstam thought she saw an oasis 24 hours in the distance and Pat Hurst was so hot, she decided to treat her golf ball for dehydration.

After bogeying the 12th and 14th holes to surrender the tournament lead to Rachel Teske, Hurst retrieved the insolent ball from the cup and angrily flung it into the nearby water hazard, successfully cooling her equipment if not her temper.

Four holes later, Pak was splashing down, unintentionally, on her way to the 18th green, hitting water from the lip of the bunker to complete a double bogey-bogey-bogey-bogey four-hole free-fall that dropped her from six strokes under par for the tournament to minus-one and tied for 12th with a one-under 215, four strokes off the lead.

Teske, who last won in 1999 as Rachel Hetherington, putted precisely through the perspiration, sinking four birdie putts of 15 feet or longer en route to a tournament-best 66 for a 54-hole score of 211, five under par, and a one-stroke lead over Hurst, Sorenstam and Akiko Fukushima.

Sorenstam, having beaten up the tour with consecutive victories at Tucson and Phoenix, including her record round of 59 in last week’s Register/Ping Classic, entered the interview room feeling as if the tour had finally decided to hit back.

How hot and tired was she?

“Let’s put it this way,” Sorenstam said with a weary smile. “I have only one round of golf left in me.

“It’s been a long three weeks, I just caught a cold. I mean, this is it. This is all I’ve got.”

Sorenstam sighed and said she was “going to try and gather all the energy I can” for today’s final round, and grind out 18 more holes, a two-week vacation serving as last-lap inspiration.

Asked how she planned to spend the first day of that hard-earned holiday, Sorenstam laughed and said, “I don’t know, I haven’t even thought about Monday. I can tell you: It’s not going to be golf.”

Beginning the day four strokes behind Hurst, Sorenstam pulled even Saturday, capitalizing on Hurst’s error-filled round of two-over 74, and her own near ace on the par-three, 171-yard 17th hole. Using a seven-iron, Sorenstam hit her tee shot to within a foot of the pin, leaving her a tap-in for birdie.

“I was watching the leader board a lot,” Sorenstam said. “I saw a lot of people up, a lot of people down. I said, ‘I just want to try and stay consistent, keep doing what you’re doing. Seems like it’s working.’ ”

Hurst opted for different methods, giving her ball a soaking after a 14th-hole bogey because, well, something deserved punishing.

“I don’t remember that hole,” Hurst quipped when questioned about her follow-through on that ball toss.

“There was a lot of frustration out there. . . . When I made birdie on 13, I started getting a little more drive again, and then shot myself in the foot with the three-putt on [No. 14]. That, I think, is where the frustration maxed out.”

No one capitalized on Hurst’s struggles more than Teske, who began the day one over par for the tournament and seven strokes behind Hurst. Her birdie on No. 1 was her first of six for the round, including three in a four-hole stretch on Nos. 12, 14 and 15.

Teske, 28, from Queensland, Australia, last won on the LPGA Tour in 1999, when she recorded victories at the Chick-fil-A Charity Championship and the City of Hope Myrtle Beach Classic. Her best previous finish at a major: tied for 16th at last year’s du Maurier Classic.

“I haven’t really played well in any of the majors that I can remember,” Teske said, before adding with a smile, “I have a bad memory, anyway.”

In position for her first major title, Teske said she hopes today to stay calm and “drive the ball well and hit it in the fairway and make the most of my chances for birdie.”

And, if conditions are similar to Saturday’s, bring along a canteen.

As Sorenstam, speaking with the flush-faced voice of experience, put it, “It’s intense out there.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

LEADERS

Nabisco Championship, 54 holes

Rachel Teske: 72-73-66--211 -5

Akiko Fukushima: 74-68-70--212 -4

Annika Sorenstam: 72-70-70--212 -4

Pat Hurst: 70-68-74--212 -4

Juli Inkster: 70-75-68--213 -3

Dottie Peppe: 71-71-71--213 -3

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* ALSO INSIDE: Lorena Ochoa of Mexico is a 19-year-old amateur but she’s playing like a seasoned pro in LPGA major. D11