Ask Minjee Lee to play in the sweltering heat, and she’ll produce a hot round of golf.

As temperatures soared into the mid-90s on Saturday afternoon at the Buick LPGA Shanghai, feeling more like it was in the 100s, Lee sizzled with a round of 65 to play her way into the final group on Sunday alongside 54-hole leader Minami Katsu and Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings No. 1 Jeeno Thitikul.

Lee began the third round five strokes off the pace and in a tie for eighth, but now, she sits just two off the lead at 15-under with 18 holes to play in the People’s Republic of China.

“There are still a lot of holes to be played, and it's a pretty stacked leaderboard at the moment, so I'm just going to try and have fun,” Lee said after her round on Saturday. “It's just super hot this whole week, and I'm sure it'll be really hot tomorrow. I'm just trying to keep as cool as possible out there.”

The only thing that was hotter than the weather on Saturday in Shanghai was Lee’s game. And although her round got off to a cold start with an opening bogey on the par-5 1st hole, she caught fire midway through her round, making eight birdies in a 10-hole stretch, including five in a row on Nos. 7-11. Lee missed just one green and three fairways all day and needed only 28 putts en route to her 7-under round at Qizhong Garden Golf Club, her lowest 18-hole score on Tour since April.

“I think because of the condition of the greens, you can be pretty aggressive,” Lee said. “I think maybe a little more spots where they're accessible, so I think it's easier to hit them like pin, target than target the pin.”

Remarkably, Lee’s round could have been even better. Besides that opening bogey at the first hole, Lee gave up just one other shot on the par 5, 17th hole, where her ball plugged in a bunker.

“I didn't feel like I hit that bad of a shot in. I hit my 7-wood, but it didn't go as far as I thought. Just got plugged. Sometimes you get an unlucky bounce or whatever,” Lee said, shrugging off the difficult break. “I was happy that it actually came out, but the putt was really long and three-putted there, but overall, I had a good day.”

This week’s trip to Shanghai marks the second time this season that Lee has thrived in sweltering playing conditions.

In June in Frisco, Texas, at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, Lee outlasted not just the field but also four consecutive days of punishing heat that, like in Shanghai, felt like it was well into the triple digits in order to capture her third career major victory at Fields Ranch East. And with temperatures forecasted to peak in the mid-90s again on Sunday and the promise of even more high humidity levels, the Aussie has a shot to become the first two-time winner of the season on the LPGA Tour if she can once more manage the blistering conditions in the final round.

“I can't control what anyone else is doing, so I'm going to focus on what I can do and do it to the best of my ability,” Lee said about her strategy on Sunday. “I'm going to try and execute every single shot like 100 percent and just try and be super committed. Like I said, it's really hot out there, so just trying to be mentally focused and try to put one foot in front of the other is going to be important.”

Minjee Lee Sizzles with a Round of 65 in Sweltering Shanghai

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