Late stumble reduces Hannah Green's KPMG Women's PGA Championship lead to one

Unburdened at last from such a successful 2018 season, Thailand's long-hitting Ariya Jutanugarn played Saturday's third round of the KPMG Women's PGA Championship with a liberation that left her smiling and a mere shot behind persistent young Australian Hannah Green.

Ranked 114th in the world, Green has led this major championship through the wind and rain its first three days at Hazeltine National Golf Club. At age 22, she finds herself ahead after 54 holes for the first time in her second LPGA Tour season.

Jutanugarn is just 23 herself, but she has already won 10 times, including two majors. She won the U.S. Women's Open and two other events in 2018 alone and for a time reached the No. 1 ranking in the world before sweeping all five major season-ending awards.

This season has brought her three top-10 finishes — the best a tie for third in April — and a realization that golf isn't life.

And that, she said, has made all the difference.

On Saturday, she called herself pleased not because she's in contention with one round left for another major victory, but because she has left behind expectations that come with such a dizzying season.

"I'm really happy about how I play the last three days because I feel so free," she said after shooting a 4-under-par 68 that made up two strokes on Green's second-round lead. "I'm not thinking about outcome. I feel I have my own game."

Green's 9 under par for the championship and Jutanugarn's 8 under separate them from the field.

Americans Lizette Salas and Nelly Korda are tied for third, at 5 under.

Jutanugarn said she found joy Saturday in both her own freed game and by watching Green again make enough putts to keep the lead at long, tough Hazeltine National.

"I've said all week I've been getting lucky," Green said. "But I guess winners do get lucky."

Jutanugarn said she has found that happiness after realizing a season like 2018's doesn't last forever.

"Last year I have a great year, but I keep thinking about the outcome," Jutanugarn said. "Especially after you become No. 1 and you come back and play this season. I just feel like a lot of expectation, not from others but from myself. It's tough for me to be happy. I felt like I have to say that golf is life because every time I play bad, I start to be unhappy. I started to be disappointed and I have to learn and know that golf and life is different."

She said daily conversations with her teacher Pia Nilsson and her family, including older sister and fellow LPGA Tour player Moriya, have taught her that difference.

"I feel like I lost who I am or who I want to be, but the last few months I learned a lot," she said. "Even if I play bad, I still have the best family. My sister is always going to support me. My mom is going to always support me. When I know that, everything is happy."

That realization brought her freedom, at least for Saturday's final 17 holes. When asked the last time she didn't feel free on a golf course, she said, "First hole."

That's where she hit into a fairway bunker, then into a greenside bunker before she finally saved par.

"After I made par on the first hole, OK, let's play golf," she said.

On Saturday, she and Green played together in the day's final pairing. Both said it felt more like match play with the rest of the field trailing behind.

"I made birdie, she made birdie," Jutanugarn said. "I hit closer, she made longer putt."

Jutanugarn shot a 68 to Green's 70 on a day when Jutanugarn outdrove Green by 20 to 30 yards using a long iron or 3-wood to Green's driver.

"I have to be really happy playing with Ariya and trying to keep up with her," Green said. "You want to hit it as hard and far as she does."

After that first hole, Jutanugarn drove the ball off the tee far and true and made four birdies in her first nine holes. All the while, Green never surrendered the lead, even if a missed short birdie putt at the drivable 16th hole and her first three-putt of the week at the closing 18th left her one shot ahead instead of three.

"I can't put any pressure on her," Jutanugarn said. "She make every putt."

Green won three times in 2017 on the LPGA's developmental tour and was in the final group at last year's Australian Open. But she has never been in this position, in a major no less.

She said she felt "nerves" and her heartbeat when play backed up at the 15th and 16th holes.

"It's my first time in this position, so I'll be a little nervous come tomorrow," Green said. "I need to just slow things down and make sure I'm not rushing into any shot.

"… If it does come to winning, I want to make sure I remember to have fun. I don't want to be miserable and sick during the round."

Jutanugarn has been in this position before at majors but said she isn't sure it will make any difference.

"To be honest, I don't know and I don't really think about it," she said. "I know what's going on in my life right now. I know tomorrow I want to play my own game. I don't know it's going to help me.

"You never know."