Shanshan Feng - TPlassais / swing-feminin

Tactical control worthy of Annika Sörenstam

Whether or not Shanshan Feng wins the 72nd US Women's Open will not detract from the way the Chinese has managed her first three rounds at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster. In a tournament marked by furious episodes of rain and a rather furious course too, Feng had it all. Behind her placid approach and her rather basic distributions, the young girl has developed a real mastery of events on the ground. Annika Sörenstam tactics, as Ron Sirak, one of the great American golf feathers who signs brilliant texts for the LPGA Tour website this week, reminds us. “Make pars, avoid mistakes and wait for those who are chasing you to stumble, especially when danger lurks everywhere on the course. " Shanshan Feng is still far from the ten Major victories recorded by the Swedish icon Sörenstam. But it is the perfect demonstration of the good strategy that she carried out on Saturday in New Jersey: seventeen consecutive games… then a single little birdie, at 18, to keep the head of the tournament with a single stroke ahead of South Koreans Hye Jin Choi and Amy Yang!

Cristie Kerr, still very "major" at almost 40 years old

With successive cards of 66, 70 and 71, Miss Feng therefore attacks her final turn at -9. Against -8 to Amy Yang and Hye Jin Choi. Korean Sung Hyun Park follows, 4th at -6, and another trio of Koreans, Mirim Lee, Jeongeun6 Lee and So Yeon Ryu, tied for 5th at - 5. Note also the remarkable 8th provisional place of the American Cristie Kerr , tied at -4 with the Spanish Carlota Ciganda (best European ranked before the fourth round). Kerr, it must be remembered, will be 40 years old on October 12th. She has 19 victories on the LPGA Tour, including one at the Women's PGA Championship in 2010 and the other at the US Open. It was in 2007. Ten years ago. But there you have it: the pugnacity, tenacity and impeccable professionalism of Miss Cristie, who has long been the American face of the Lacoste brand, continues to work miracles. The forty-year-old is therefore, once again, in a situation to play for the win in a Major. Even if five strokes behind, on a course as selective as that of Trump National this week, represented the maximum delay to hope to get back on a leader at -9 ...

Hye Jin Choi, the same dream as Catherine Lacoste

Among the eight players five strokes behind or less, therefore the most likely to top Shanshan Feng on the post, one particularly attracted attention during the first three days of this Women's US Open. It's Hye Jin Choi. At 17, still an amateur, this Choi also happens to be the little protege of Lydia Ko. Rather than talking about her own performance, which a priori became irrelevant for her (Ko was 23rd after three laps, with a 75 card on Saturday ), the former world number 1 was only interested in his young friend Hye Jin. And his chances to make history in Bedminster, in the great suburbs of New York. Ron Sirak, still him, reminded him in his last article dated on the LPGA Tour website: "History can be written this Sunday at Trump National". Because the only time an amateur player won the US Open was 50 years ago, July 2, 1967 in Hot Springs, Virginia. The amateur in question was only 22 years old. She came straight from Chantaco. She was French. Her name was Catherine Lacoste.