Sei Young Kim hangs on to lead on a rollercoaster day at El Cab
By Amy Rogers
There was no one who made a faster climb up the leaderboard on moving day than overnight leader Sei Young Kim, who extended her one stroke lead to as many as seven over the course of the third round of the JM Eagle LA Championship presented by Plastpro.
But Kim’s round took an unexpected turn on the back nine as she made four consecutive bogeys to see her lead cut to two strokes, which will give the field a fighting chance come Sunday. Kim sits at 15-under par and leads past champion Hannah Green, Suvichaya Vinijchaitham, Ina Yoon, and Jessica Porvasnik at 13-under par.
“It’s tough, tough last couple holes,” Kim said after her round. “I was thinking walking on the 18th, I need more strategy, follow the strategy, not my heart, you know? So, that will be better.”
Kim looked unstoppable on the front nine on Saturday afternoon. Kim, who began her day with a one-stroke promptly birdied her first hole of the day by using the backstop midway through the green to spin her approach back for an easy birdie. The major champion continued to make birdie on each of the odd holes on her outward nine to card a 31 on the front side to take a 7-stroke lead at the turn.
Kim’s birdie pattern came to an end on the backside as she made four consecutive pars to begin her second nine.
And that’s when Kim’s day took a shocking turn.
On the tee at the par 4,14th hole Kim hit a wild drive to the left which caught a lucky break and ricocheted off of a tree to come to rest in a fairway bunker. Kim has fought an unwieldy driver throughout the week as she’s found less than 50 percent of fairways and her miscue off the tee resulted in her first bogey of the day. But Kim’s lead was still five strokes.
“A little bit of pull there,” Kim said about her tee shot at the 14th hole. “I didn't know like my ball hit the trees and got in the bunker, but it was in the bunker, so it's not easy from the get out from the 14, the bunker.”
At the par 3, 15th hole Kim hit her tee ball long and through the back of the green which came to stop in the back bunker. Kim misjudged her second shot which ran past the hole and nearly off the other side of the green, which resulted in another bogey for Kim, who saw her lead fall to four.
“But 15 is like par-3, downwind, strong downwind,” Kim said. “Every hole is downwind starting 15 until the 18. Feel like, yeah, really tough. I was struggle with, yeah, downwind today.”
Unable to stop the downward spiral, Kim found the left rough off the tee at the par 5, 16th and left her second shot short of the green and in a water hazard. Kim took a drop and then chipped her ball well short of the hole to make a third consecutive bogey to cut her lead to three.
“I need listen to my caddie, what he saying. I was like, I had a good condition so sometimes I too trust my feeling, but depend what the condition. Sometime I need to listen to what my people are saying,” Kim said about deviating from her strategy with her longtime caddie, Paul Fusco. “So that's why I play in the water hole 16. He told me you have to go right. You have to avoid the pin. I was like, okay, and then my heart going to the pin.”
Kim’s downturn continued at the par 3, 17th hole where a must-make par putt lipped out of the cup for a fourth straight dropped shot. Kim’s lead was down to two.
On the closing hole, Kim made a critical up and down from the rough over the back of the green at the par 4, 18th to save par and a round of 71.
“After couple miss shot and then my mentally, emotionally, like up and down, it's not calm, so it's make my putting a little bit, yeah, mistake. So I try to calm come down last putt when I on the 18th hole,” Kim said about the emotions she battled over the inward stretch. “But I made it. Okay, it's finish today. Starting again tomorrow. Yeah, it'll be better.”
Green scrambled her way to the top of the leaderboard on moving day at El Cab and was in the clubhouse before Kim’s day began to unravel. Although Green dealt with her own challenges on Saturday, having missed seven greens, the Aussie needed just 25 putts en route to carding a round of 67 to put herself in pursuit of her third title at the JM Eagle LA Championship presented by Plastpro which she won back-to-back at Wilshire Country Club in 2023 and 2024.
“Today kind of caught me off guard a little bit. Felt like I hit it better off the tee but perhaps a couple wayward drives that kind of made it a bit tricky to make a par,” Green said about her round. “After this I'll probably go hit a few balls. I don't feel like I normally do that after a round, but I feel like I need to tidy it up. I feel like every time you go to the range after a round you just flush it, so it's going to be a little bit annoying.”
Patty Tavatanakit, Melanie Green, and Jin Hee Im sit in a share of sixth and three-strokes behind Kim.
Im, who was at one point Kim’s closest chaser on Saturday afternoon, was assessed a one stroke penalty by the LPGA Tour for slow play. Im was assessed the stroke on the par 5, 13th hole where she had made par. Im posted a bogey on the hole and carded a third round 69.
Lottie Woad jumped nearly 30 spots up the leaderboard on moving day by carding the low round of the day, highlighted by three straight birdies to card a 7-under par 65. Woad sat 11 strokes off the lead to start the day and climbed from a tie for 39th into a tie for 10th heading into Sunday’s final round.
“Honestly, played decent the last couple days, just didn't make that many putts,” said Woad, who needed just 26 putts on Saturday. “Yesterday was a bit of a struggle. I was dealing with some neck issues yesterday. Couldn't really hit the ball that great. Today it loosened up a little bit after some treatment and it was kind of one of those rounds where it's like I'm just going to have to play with what I got and it was okay in the end.”
Saturday afternoon Walter Wang, the CEO of JM Eagle, announced that the tournament purse would increase by $1 mil effective immediately, raising the week’s total prize money to $4.75 mil. The sizable adjustment makes the tournament’s purse once more one of the largest on the LPGA Tour outside the majors and the CME Group Tour Championship.
“I know there’s a lot of other great companies out there, title sponsors, presenting sponsors, and hopefully they’ll also follow suit. They just need a little influence, a little push” Wang said about his desire to continue to push the LPGA Tour forward. “At the end of the day it’s good for women’s sports and good for women’s golf, so why not?”
When JM Eagle and Plastpro took over as tournament sponsors in 2022 they immediately doubled the prize money to $3 million, which at the time made it the highest purse outside the major championships. Since then, nearly a dozen LPGA Tour events have increased their purses and offered additional travel perks to help defray player’s expenses. Again this season, Walter Wang, and his wife Shirley, the CEO of Plastpro, have provided complimentary hotel accommodations to all players in the field.
“Amazing news for all us players,” Green said about Saturday’s surprising announcement. “I really think when they jumped on board for this tournament all the other tournaments kind of felt like they had to also increase their purses and also raise the bar with getting hotel rooms or cars, whatever it may be. They've definitely been the trendsetter for other events on Tour. I'm not surprised that Walter announced that today.”
