Rolex Rankings No. 7 Lexi Thompson didn’t know just how good her Saturday effort at the Palos Verdes Championship presented by Bank of America would be when she finished her third round. Thompson started the day at even par and nine shots back of overnight leader Hannah Green and needed a hot round to move up the leaderboard, a challenge she handily accepted. Lexi fired a 5-under 66 on Moving Day, going out in 31 on the front side, and hit 13 of 14 fairways and 14 of 18 greens, an impressive ball-striking performance considering the firmness of the greens at Palos Verdes Golf Club.
“The first two days were a little bit rough with the ball-striking, but came together today,” said Thompson who, entering this week, leads the LPGA Tour in Greens in Regulation (78.1%). “Had a good range session yesterday after my round and figured out a few things. Just felt confident coming into today. I knew I had to make a lot of birdies and I knew they were going to shoot low depending on the wind so overall, taking the positives from today and hoping for the best tomorrow.”
Thompson now sits three back of Green with one round left to play at PVGC and if she can successfully chase down the final group, the win would mark Lexi’s first victory since the 2019 ShopRite LPGA Classic, ending a 1,057 day drought that’s seen the 27-year-old endure some heartbreaking losses on the golf course. As she looks ahead to the final round, Thompson isn’t putting any pressure on herself or her game even though that long-awaited win is just within reach.
“I just tried to keep it going and stay in the process of doing my routine on every shot and committing to my golf shots out there,” she said. “It feels great obviously, but I'm sure that they'll still shoot a few under out there. I did what I could control. I put a nice round out there so I’ll take that into tomorrow and just do what I did today and see where that takes me.”
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