Buenos Aires, Argentina (22 October) – Korea, in search of its first title since 1996, extended its lead to 13 strokes over the USA and 16 over Germany in the third round of the 2010 Women’s World Amateur Team Championship.

Korea's Jung-Eun Han eyes a putt in the third round of the 2010 Women's World Amateur Team Championship at Buenos Aires Golf Club. (John Mummert/IGF)

For the Koreans, Hyun-Soo Kim, the low amateur at the 2010 Australian Women’s Open, shot 6-under-par 66 while Ji-Hee Kim and Jung-Eun Han both shot 4-under 68 at Buenos Aires Golf Club. Their 10-under-par 134 third-round score is four strokes better than the previous mark of 138 by the USA in 1998.

In the second and third rounds, both at Buenos Aires Golf Club, the Koreans were a scorching 26 under par. Their record-setting stretch of play led to a championship-best 54-hole total of 25-under-par 407, bettering the USA’s 416 in 1998. Their lead of 13 strokes is the championship’s second-largest through 54 holes

"We are in love with this course,” Korean coach Jong-Il Kim said of Buenos Aires Golf Club. “We love the greens.”

"The Korean team started out sinking putt after putt early in the round,” said USA captain Roberta Bolduc.  “It is difficult to see that when yours are going around the edges. It can become frustrating.”

The Americans did not keep pace with the good start of Korea and each of the players, Jessica Korda,  Cydney Clanton and Danielle Kang, shot 73. Their 54-hole total is 420.

Starting the day one stroke ahead of the USA, the Koreans added rapidly to their lead because they completed 19 holes without registering a team bogey from the seventh hole of the second round to the eighth hole of the third round.  

Ji-Hee Kim, the 2009 Korean Women’s Amateur champion, posted a hole-in-one on the par-3 14th hole with a 4-iron.

Sophia Popov of Germany celebrates a long putt on the 18th green in the third round of the Espirito Santo competition (John Mummert/IGF).

"We are nervous,” said Korea’s Han of the possibility of winning the Espirito Santo Trophy “But, we will keep playing as we have. We will try to do our best.”

"If our team goes back to the kind of ball striking that they had a couple of days ago, this is a lead we can overcome,” said the USA’s Bolduc of her team’s 8-under-par score in the first round. “It’s going to take a huge effort but they are capable of doing it. We will come ready to play.”

The teams on the top half of the scoreboard played at Buenos Aires Golf Club in the third round and will play at Olivos Golf Club in the final round.

In the windier conditions of the third round, only 17 sub-par rounds were posted compared to 44 in the second round.

Germany maintained its spot in third place at 423 followed by South Africa at 424. Argentina, Spain and France were tied for fifth place at 425. Defending champion Sweden was in eighth place at 426, followed by Mexico and the Philippines, which shared ninth at 430.

For complete results and fourth-round groupings and starting times, visit www.internationalgolffederation.org and click on the Golfstat icon.

Conducted by the International Golf Federation, which comprises national governing bodies of golf in more than 120 countries, the Women’s World Amateur Team Championship is a biennial international amateur competition, which is rotated among three geographic zones:  Asia-Pacific, Americas and Europe-Africa.  This year the event is hosted by the Asociacion Argentina de Golf.  The teams play for the Espirito Santo Trophy.

Each team has two or three players and plays 18 holes of stroke play for four days. In each round, the total of the two lowest scores by players from each team constitutes the team score for the round.  The four-day (72 holes) total is the team’s score for the championship.

Written by Pete Kowalski, IGF Media Officer