BELLEAIR, Fla. - Lindy Duncan clutched her five wood with both hands and thrust it high above her head in celebration while standing in the 18th fairway at Pelican Golf Club.

“I’m so happy,” Duncan said to her caddie, Greg Johnston, as she watched her ball clear the water guarding the putting surface at the closing par four. Duncan’s approach from 192 yards, into the wind, set up a two-putt par for the 35-year old, who carded a 69 on Saturday to become the 54-hole leader of The ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge at Pelican at 13-under par.

“I just started getting really cold in that fairway. I was telling Greg, if I'm hitting 5-wood I'm like pretty concerned about it not carrying because I'm just so cold,” said Duncan, who was doing jumping jacks in the fairway before hitting her final approach to try and stay warm. “I tried to hit it pretty hard. Didn't quite catch it. It was a little bit low on the face and it was low, like the flight of it, so I was pretty concerned that it -- I didn't think it was going to clear and I don't think it cleared by very much.”

Overnight a cold front moved into the Tampa area and brought with it much cooler temperatures in which the high climbed to just 60 degrees on Saturday. Breezy conditions compounded the challenge and the dramatic weather shift from the first two rounds pushed third round scores much higher as many players struggled to break par as the scoring average climbed three strokes higher than the day before.

Duncan’s closing par gave her one of the few bogey-free rounds recorded on Saturday, and paved the pathway towards her first career win on the LPGA Tour.

Duncan comes into The ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge at Pelican with just a single top 10 on the season and ranked No. 74 in the Race to the CME Globe Point standings. The top 60 in the field upon conclusion of The ANNIKA will punch their ticket to the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship next week in Naples, Fla. With a win, Duncan would not only get her long-awaited first win in her more than a dozen years competing on the LPGA Tour, but she is also projected to move to No. 34 in the point standings and into the field at the Tour Championship.

“It's not what happens, it's how you respond. Trying to get one percent better at that is huge,” Duncan said about her approach to Sunday’s final round. “I think my game is in a good spot, so it's like just try to go out and play my game and have fun with Greg.”

Duncan holds a narrow one-stroke lead ahead of Hye-Jin Choi, who held a share of the 36-hole lead with Duncan and Carlota Ciganda.

Choi and Ciganda both stumbled early in the round with bogeys at the opening par four, first hole. Ciganda also dropped shots on holes Nos. 5 - 8 to go out in 40 and tumble down the leaderboard as she suffered four three-putts en route to a round of 75.

Choi managed to bounce back after suffering three bogeys in her first five holes by posting back-to-back birdies at Nos. 6 and 7 to steady her round. She added two more birdies at the par four, 13th and par five, 14th holes to join Duncan in a tie atop the leaderboard at 13-under par.

But Choi ran into the trouble Duncan was so happy to avoid at the par four, 18th hole. Choi struggled to get up and down from short of the green, taking two shots to reach the putting surface which resulted in a bogey and dropped her out of a share of the lead.

“It was tough from the start today and it was kind of cold and windy,” Choi said about the change in conditions from the first two days. “And kind of the similar situation as yesterday with some mistakes on the front nine, so I just tried to concentrate on my play and it worked well.”

Choi, like Duncan, comes into the final round in search of her first career win on the LPGA Tour. Choi has come close in her five seasons on the LPGA Tour, recording nine runner-up finishes, including two in her last three starts.

“I think that it's good that I have lots of opportunities to play in the final group and to get the chance to win,” Choi said about what she’s learned from the previous close calls that can help her during the final round. “I have some memories that I didn't make my win, but I still have that experience. I am just going to try myself, and if it didn't work out really well on the front nine tomorrow, I'm just going to try to concentrate until the end.”

Yuri Yoshida, a first-time recent winner in October at the BMW Ladies Championship, sits two-strokes off the lead at 11-under par. Ina Yoon sits solo fourth at 10-under par, and Haeran Ryu leads a trio at nine-under par that also includes Gaby Lopez and Julia Lopez Ramirez.

Ryu recorded the low round of the day in the tough scoring conditions with a 65 and only the second bogey-free round of the day. Ryu vaulted from eight-strokes off the lead to sit just four-strokes back by day’s end and to position the two-time major winner this season in contention for her third victory of the year.

“This course is too hard because of the wind and green is firm and fast. It was so hard to make some stay on the green,” Ryu said about the difficulty she faced on Saturday at Pelican Golf Club. I'm just keep focus for how to do I make some easy par, and then how to do make some easy putt for trying to birdie putt. So it works today. And then, yeah, it was so happy to I make some lot of birdies and bogey-free round today.”

Nelly Korda struggled for the second day in a row and carded a 1-over par, 73 to fall six-strokes off the pace. Korda is seeking her fourth victory at The ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge at Pelican and is in the hunt for the final point she needs to qualify for the LPGA Tour Hall of Fame.

Lindy Duncan Holds 54-Hole Lead, Chases First Career Win at The ANNIKA

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