If golf doesn’t work out for Danielle Kang, a future in track and field might not be out of reach.
The Las Vegas native took time out of her scorching round of 6-under 66 on Saturday to take off at the turn from nine to 10 on a dead sprint as if someone just stole her golf clubs.
Was she grabbing a bite to eat or looking for the nearest Porta-Potty?
“No. That’s what I usually do because I’m a very quick-paced person and I don’t like walking very slow,” Kang said. “It was a twosome today too and I wanted to keep it going.”
Who wouldn’t want to speed things after carding four birdies and an eagle in the first eight holes to suddenly find herself in contention in the final round of the LPGA Lotte Championship.
Kang teed off at Ko Olina Golf Club 10 shots behind leader Su-Yeon Jang, and by the time she was seen running up the driveway leading to the clubhouse, she was within four.
She got to 14 under with a birdie at 13 and found herself just two back of the lead while on the 14th fairway after Yeon made double bogey at No. 8.
“I was looking for the leaderboard and I didn’t know where it was,” Kang said. “I always look at the leaderboard, and after after I made that bogey on 16 I realized I was three shots out.
“So then I’m like, OK, let’s try to make a birdie here (on 17) and then hole out on the next hole and see what happens.”
Kang accomplished the first part of that with her sixth birdie of the day at 17 to make up for the three-putt bogey at 16.
After a solid drive down the left side of the fairway, Kang had 146 yards to the hole but found the swan-filled pond just below the green instead.
“I was just trying to hit a good shot there and I actually did hit it good, but I turned it over a little bit more,” Kang said. “The wind was very switchy today — going from southwest to northwest — so it was either downwind or into it. I needed to fly the green and then I was trying to give it a little extra and turn it over a little more and I ended up in the water.”
Like the birdie on 17 after her first bogey in 27 holes, Kang shook off the mistake and managed an up-and-down from the drop zone with a delicate 8-footer for bogey, pumping her first after sinking the putt that notched her second top-10 of the season at 13-under-275.
She tied for fourth at the Honda LPGA Thailand in February but missed two of her last three cuts before coming to Hawaii.
“It’s great to finish with a 66 on the final day and then move up the leaderboard,” said Kang, who has cashed in all five of her starts at Ko Olina. “I got off to a really hot start and tried to keep rolling the ball constantly into the hole but left a couple short in the beginning and tried to keep the momentum going making par putts.”
The 66, which matched Kang’s first-ever professional round at Ko Olina as her personal best, was bettered only by world No. 1 Lydia Ko, who tied for second after a 64, and amateur Eun Jeong Seong.
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