US Women’s Open golf 2024: fourth round – live | US Open

Yuka Saso wedges her approach at the par-five 13th to a couple of feet. She tidies up for birdie to hit the lead. And expect that lead to extend soon, because Minjee Lee’s tee shot at the treacherous par-three 12th hits the bank to the right of the green and topples back into the creek. To the dropzone!

-3: Saso (13)
-2: M Lee (11)
-1: Yubol (13), Shibuno (12), A Lee (11)
E: Ewing (16)

Minjee Lee steadies the ship at 11 by chipping up neatly to a couple of feet, and stroking in the par save. Andrea Lee misses a fairly straight uphill birdie effort, and grimaces ruefully. Meanwhile up on the driveable par-four 16th, Ally Ewing crashes her tee shot from 235 yards to eight feet. She can’t make the eagle putt, a downhill dribbler which is always missing on the right, but in goes the birdie putt. Her fourth of the day, with no blemishes on the card. Given much of the carnage around Lancaster Country Club this afternoon, that’s some feat. She’s level par.

It’s just not happening for Minjee Lee right now. Another drive, another missed fairway, and though she lands her second, from a fairway bunker, onto the green, the ball spins back off the false front and away down the fairway. Big up and down coming up. But it is happening for Hinako Shibuno, who finds the green at the par-three 12th – no mean feat in itself, just ask Nelly ‘10’ Korda – then steers in a huge left-to-right swinger for birdie. She clicks into Smiling Cinderella mode, as well she might, given she’s now just one off the lead at -1!

Here’s an astonishing stat courtesy of NBC. Before she shot 68 yesterday, Arpichaya Yubol had only broken 70 once this year. Should she par her way home, she’ll sign for a 67 today. Should she win, it’d be one hell of a story, and quite the time to suddenly find a rich vein of form!

Yuka Saso finally makes a putt! She pours in a downhill left-to-right slider from 20 feet on 12 … and she’s suddenly got a share of the lead, because on 10, Minjee Lee nearly drains a 30-foot birdie effort, but the ball rolls three feet past, and the one coming back is tugged left. Consecutive bogeys, and the 2022 champion is struggling. Saso and Arpichaya Yubol look the two most likely at the moment … though as we’ve already seen once or twice today, everything can change in an instant!

-2: Saso (12), M Lee (10)
-1: Yubol (12), A Lee (10)
E: Shibuno (11)
+1: Ewing (15)

Ally Ewing is this close to draining a 35-footer on 15 for birdie. The ball turns left at the very last. So unlucky. She remains at +1. Meanwhile one hell of a chip by Arpichaya Yubol on the par-three 12th. In the thick stuff at the back, anything hit hot will sail past the hole, down the slope, and possibly off the green and into the drink. But she punches out delicately, pitching her ball merely a couple of feet forward, onto the fringe of the green, the camber tickling the ball down to four feet. In goes the par saver, and that chip took nerves of steel. At -1, Yubol remains two off Minjee Lee’s lead, and if she’s to win this today, that might be the shot she’ll remember most fondly.

The final group hits the turn on Sunday so … welcome to the start of the 2024 Women’s US Open! Minjee Lee celebrates it by finding her first fairway of the day at 10. Only just, as her ball squeaks over a bunker on the right and rolls apologetically onto the short stuff, but it’s good enough.

… and Yubol is right in this, because Minjee Lee can’t get close with her approach at 9, and has to settle for bogey. All the fault of the wild drive. If she doesn’t get the big stick going, and start finding a few fairways, what earlier looked a likely victory is very much in the balance. Bogeys for Hinako Shibuno and Wichanee Meechai at 10, meanwhile.

-3: M Lee (9)
-1: Yubol (11), Saso (11), A Lee (9)
E: Shibuno (10)
+1: Ewing (14), Meechai (10)

A neat up-and-down for Arpichaya Yubol at 11. A chip from 60 feet to five and a putt calmly rolled in. The 22-year-old Thai is in uncharted territory – this is her US Open debut, and she’s never made the cut in any of her other major-championship appearances – but her nerves are yet to betray her, and along with Ally Ewing, at three under for her round, she’s by far the best-performing of the players out there. If she keeps this going, and posts a score, we could have ourselves a surprise champion from Thailand after all. Just not Wichanee Meechai, who started eight shots clear of her compatriot today, but now trails her by one.

Minjee Lee hasn’t hit a fairway yet! She keeps that record going by sending her tee shot at 9 into a fairway bunker on the left. Ally Ewing nearly holed out from this bunker earlier in the day, 185 yards out, tapping home for birdie, but Lee is too close to the face to give it a good old whack. She takes her medicine and wedges out, but she’ll now need to get up and down from 80 yards if she’s to save her par.

Ally Ewing keeps on keepin’ on. A third birdie of the day, this time at 13, and she gets herself into the picture at +1. Also moving up the leader board: Arpichaya Yubol, who rakes in a 25-footer for birdie at 10. But moving the wrong way, Andrea Lee, who sends her tee shot at 8 wide right, dunks her second into sand, and does very well to limit the damage to bogey by getting up and down from the bunker.

-4: M Lee (8)
-1: Yubol (10), Saso (9), Shibuno (9), A Lee (8)
E: Meechai (9)
+1: Ewing (13)

Nothing’s really dropped for Yuka Saso yet. But she’ll remember that, at roughly this stage in her victory year of 2021, the leaderboard looked like this …

-8: Thompson (7)
-3: Feng (7), Saso (7)
-2: Yin (8), Khang (8)

… but ended up like this …

-4: Saso, Hataoka (Saso won play-off at first sudden-death hole)
-3: Thompson
-2: Khang, Feng

… so there’s a lot of story yet to be told. Then again, when Minjee Lee won it a year later, her lead at this rough point was this …

-13: Lee (8)
-9: Harigae (8)

… and that one ended up like this …

-13: Lee
-9: Harigae

In other words, history teaches us nothing.

Hinako Shibuno hands the shot she picked up at 7 straight back at 8. A tentative three-putt bogey. Meanwhile two putts for par on 7 for both Andrea and Minjee Lee, the latter disappointed after failing to read the right-to-left break on her short birdie effort. And on 9, Yuka Saso comes up ten feet short with a chip from the fringe, but makes the par saver to turn in 36.

-4: M Lee (7)
-2: A Lee (7)
-1: Saso (9), Shibuno (8)
E: Yubol (9), Meechai (8)

Yesterday, Minjee Lee’s second into the par-five 7th took a huge kick off a hillock to the left of the green and sprang 90 degrees right, rolling up to kick-in distance for eagle. The shot that kick-started her round of 66. Today an errant drive means she’s got to lay up, but then a wedge from 90 yards to six feet sets up a big birdie opportunity. Andrea Lee is also on in regulation, but facing a long two putts for her par.

Minjee Lee’s conservative tactics at 6 don’t pay off. Three putts and that’s her second bogey of the day. Andrea Lee is able to get a putter to her ball from the fringe, and two careful strokes salvage her par. That’s how quickly the landscape can change at a US Open, because when Andrea’s tee shot was heading towards the drink, things were beginning to look very comfortable for Minjee. But throw in a birdie for Hinako Shibuno at the par-five 7th, and now …

-4: M Lee (6)
-2: Shibuno (7), A Lee (6)
-1: Saso (8)
E: Yubol (8), Meechai (7)

Arpichaya Yubol makes up for a dropped stroke at 6 with a 25-foot birdie rake across 8. The Thai debutant joins her compatriot Wichanee Meechai at level par. Meanwhile Ally Ewing’s best finish at the US Open is a tie for tenth in 2019; the 31-year-old from Misissipi is on course to best that today, after birdies at 9 and 11 take her up to +2 and into a tie for eighth.

Andrea Lee can’t afford too many more mistakes. She nearly makes a big one on the par-three 6th, sending her tee shot straight at the flag like Wichanee Meechai did moments earlier. Somehow her ball lands softly and though it runs off the green on the left, it does so slowly enough for the greenside rough to hold it up just outside the hazard. She won’t have an easy chip from there – good luck with the stance – but at least she’s dry. Minjee Lee takes no chances, firing to the right-hand side of the green. The leader’s left with a long two-putt for par, but it was the percentage play given the state of the tournament right now.

Meechai can’t make her bogey putt – so unlucky as it somehow horseshoes out – and this has been a heartbreaking start for the Thai underdog. A triple. She’s +5 for her round after six holes, and back to level par.

-5: M Lee (5)
-2: A Lee (5)
-1: Saso (7), Shibuno (6)
E: Meechai (6)

Meechai only just makes it onto the green from the dropzone. She leaves her bogey putt four feet short, too. That’ll be a tester for double.

Disaster for Wichanee Meechai on the par-three 6th. The flag is back left, and she arrows her ball straight at it. Problem is, anything that rolls past is kinking off to the left and down into the drink. And there it goes. Anguish spreads across the world number 158’s face. She’s currently in second spot but most likely will be moving backwards very soon. Everyone is moving backwards, except for Minjee Lee, who is level par for her round so far.

Yuka Saso has a US Open moment on the par-three 6th. A four-putt. That’s a double bogey and she slips back to -1. It’s also a double for Andrea Lee on 4, who can’t make a ten-footer to limit the damage. Meanwhile the leader gets up and down from greenside rough – the chip’s not that great, but the 15-foot par saver is – and things suddenly look very healthy for the 2022 winner.

-5: M Lee (4)
-3: Meechai (5)
-2: A Lee (4)
-1: Saso (6), Shibuno (6)

It’s back-to-back bogeys for Hinako Shibuno. The second of them, at 4, is the result of flying her approach through the green. She’s back to -1. Meanwhile a much-needed stroke of luck for Andrea Lee on 4, as she punches up onto the green, but only after nearly hitting a branch, then taking a friendly hop out of thick greenside rough. She’ll have a putt for par.

Trouble for Andrea Lee at 4. She sends her tee shot into a creek down the right. If she drops nearby, she’s not getting up and over a big tree en route to the green. So she’s forced to drop back down the hole, keeping in line with the spot she entered the hazard. Now she can get over the tree, but it’s a much longer shot to the green. And she doesn’t make it, hitting the tree anyway, her ball coming down in the long grass near the creek. This could get ugly.

The 2019 PGA champion Hannah Green is the early clubhouse leader. A fine round of 66, the best of the day so far, and she’s back in the house at +5. The aforementioned Charley Hull ended up with a 67 after dropping her only stroke of the day at 17; she finishes her week at +6.

Minjee Lee chips crisply to a couple of feet. That’s just the one shot gone. Her playing partner and namesake Andrea has a putt for birdie from 25 feet that would put them both back where they started … but she can’t make it. Just a par, but now the deficit is just one.

-5: M Lee (3)
-4: A Lee (3)

An unforced error by the leader Minjee Lee on 3. From the first cut to the left of the fairway, just 50 yards out, she carves her wedge into sand to the right of the green. Then a blast out races hysterically across the dancefloor and nearly ends up in a bunker on the other side. The ball stops in the fringe but she’ll have a testing up-and-down to limit the damage to bogey.

Hinako Shibuno is the latest member of the leading pack to start moving backwards. A careless lip-out from a couple of feet on 3 costs the 25-year-old from Japan a shot. But there’s another player looking to make a late run and get themselves involved; Arpichaya Yubol, a 22-year-old from Thailand making her US Open debut this week, has opened her final round briskly with birdies at 1 and 4, and is homing in on the peloton at level par.

-6: M Lee (2)
-4: A Lee (2)
-3: Saso (4), Meechai (3)
-2: Shibuno (3)
E: Yubol (4)

Another three-putt bogey for Wichanee Meechai, this time at 2, and things are going south for the Thai underdog in double-quick time. She’s -3. Then in the final group coming behind, Andrea Lee finds herself in a deep greenside bunker at the same hole; she flips out elegantly to three feet and tidies up to save her par and avert a bogey-bogey start. She remains two off Minjee Lee.

Charley Hull has star quality – anyone who saw her making eagle on Sunday at Walton Heath last summer will attest to that. She’s been making ripples on social media this week because of this …

… which is her novel tactic to wean herself off the vapes. Anyway, she’s also smoking up the course today; birdies at 1, 5, 13 and 16 have blazed her up the leaderboard to +5. No breakthrough major this week, but it’s only a matter of time. More tales of smoking golfers can be found in the article below, which stars 1946 US Open winner Lloyd Mangrum, who like Hull exudes effortless cool. Hey, I don’t write the rules.

Minjee Lee opens with birdie! She sends her approach into 1 to 12 feet, and walks in the putt. But it’s a careless three-putt bogey for Andrea Lee, and in no time at all, a three-way tie for the lead turns into a two-shot advantage for the 2022 champ!

-6: M Lee (1)
-4: Meechai (1), A Lee (1)
-3: Saso (2), Shibuno (1)

The 2021 champion Yuka Saso has made the first move of the day at the top of the leader board, with birdie at 2. A 30-foot rake. Back on 1, Hinako Shibuno’s 20-foot birdie effort stays stubbornly out on the high side, and the 2019 British Open champion settles for an opening par. Wichanee Meechai doesn’t make hers, though; the first putt is fine, lagged up to four feet from great distance, but she doesn’t learn from Shibuno’s putt and leaves the second one high on the right.

-5: M Lee, A Lee
-4: Meechai (1)
-3: Saso (2), Shibuno (1)

Meechai is going around today with Hinako Shibuno, who is on the green in regulation. Meanwhile back on the tee, the final group take their opening shots. Andrea Lee is looking for her first major; she swishes her drive down the middle. Her namesake Minjee Lee has two majors to her name – this title in 2022 and the Evian in 2021 – and the Aussie bashes long down the left of the fairway, bounding past Meechai’s bunker with ease. Everyone is now on the course. This is on!

Wichanee Meechai knows a thing or two about fast starts. The world number 158 is a surprise contender, which is something she’s been since opening her second round on Friday afternoon with four straight birdies between 10 and 13. She’s been at the top ever since. But it’s not an ideal start for the 31-year-old Thai today; her opening drive stops near the side of a bunker on the left, and she’s forced to stand in the bunker, grip down the shaft, and take a baseball swing at a waist-high ball. The sort of thing that could go horribly wrong and ruin a round almost before it starts … however she’s made some big par saves this week, and is on course for another after clipping the ball 100 yards up the fairway and running it onto the edge of the green! That’s a stunning recovery, one that looked unlikely, and though she faces a long two putts for par, that’s quite the result.

Here we go, then! Lancaster Country Club has been playing hard all right, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be a score out there for someone today. The 2020 champion A Lim Kim is currently demonstrating that; the 28-year-old from South Korea started too far back today to challenge, but if she could sell her start to the leaders, she’d be raking in a fair coin. Birdies at 4 and 5, and she’s up to +3 in short order.

Preamble