HONOLULU — A Lim Kim birdied the final two holes for a 5-under 67 and one-stroke lead over Nataliya Guseva on Friday in the Lotte Championship.
Kim rebounded from a bogey on the par-4 16th with the birdies on the par-4 17th and par-5 18th. She had a 14-under 202 total at breezy Hoakalei Country Club with a round left in the event that started Wednesday.
Kim is No. 65 in the Race to CME Globe, and only has two tournaments left to crack the top 60 and earn a spot in the season finale that pays $4 million to the winner. The 29-year-old South Korean player won the U.S. Women’s Open in December 2020 for her lone LPGA Tour title.
Her third round also included a hole-in-one at the par-3 ninth.
Guseva, the 21-year-old player trying to become the first Russian winner in LPGA Tour history, shot 68. She bogeyed the 17th for the third day in a row.
Ryann O’Toole was third at 11 under after a 69.
Jin Young Ko shot 67 to join Auston Kim (69) and Yuri Yoshida (71) at 10 under.
