Sorenstam Has 8 Birdies, Lead

Friday she got mad, Saturday she got even -- and more.

Annika Sorenstam, miffed Friday when an official’s ruling went against her and she bogeyed two of the last three holes, charged past the field and into the lead after the third round of the Samsung World Championship.

After a six-under-par 66 at Bighorn Golf Club in Palm Desert, the defending champion is 15 under par.

That left her far ahead of the field. Only Gloria Park, who shot a four-under 68 on Saturday and is 11 under, and 16-year-old Hawaiian Michelle Wie (10 under) are within five shots. Two others, Cristie Kerr and Catriona Matthew, are six shots behind.

Sorenstam had eight birdies for the second time in three days and is positioned to join Mickey Wright as the only players to win the same LPGA Tour event five times.

This will be the 64th tournament in which Sorenstam has taken a lead into the final round. She won 43 of 63 -- a 68% success rate -- and finished second or third 18 other times. She is 14-2 when leading by at least four shots.

“Well, obviously I’m very happy with my round,” said Sorenstam, who since March 2002 is 10-0 when taking a lead of four shots or more into the final 18 holes.

After starting the day two shots off the lead, Sorenstam kick-started her round by sinking a 22-foot birdie putt on the second hole, the first of a string of three consecutive birdies. “I haven’t really made a lot of putts this week,” she said, “so to make something like that, I thought, ‘This could be my day.’ ”

Capping her round, she birdied Nos. 14, 15, 16 and 18.

Wie, making her professional debut at Bighorn, overcame a shaky start that included a bogey on the second hole and a double-bogey on the third and had four birdies en route to a one-under 71 that left her alone in third place.

“It felt good that I actually brought it back,” she said. “I hadn’t been feeling that great after I was three over after three holes. But I just calmed myself down and made a realistic goal, and I’m really happy that I achieved it....

“After the [first] nine holes, I came up to my mom and I said, ‘I’m going to [get to] 10 under par,’ and I’m really glad that I did.”

At that point, Wie’s playing partner, second-round leader Grace Park, had already fallen out of contention. Park, whose lead after 36 holes was two shots over a trio that included Sorenstam and Wie, was undone by an errant tee shot into the desert on the par-three eighth hole, followed by a whiff on her second shot, a penalty drop onto the seventh fairway and, ultimately, a quadruple-bogey.

Park said the whiff was only the second of her career. She couldn’t remember ever scoring a quadruple-bogey.

“It’s hard,” Park said of her four-over 76, which dropped her into a tie for 10th place at seven under. “Annika, even if she runs away with it, I’ll still try to get as close as I can.”