Minjee Lee wins US Women’s Open golf – as it happened

The Pine Needles Lodge and Golf Club has always produced a US Women’s Open champion out of the top drawer. The tournament has been held here in Southern Pines, North Carolina three times before, in 1996, 2001 and 2007; in reverse order, the winners those years were two-time major champion Cristie Kerr, seven-time major champion Karrie Webb, and ten-time major champion Annika Sörenstam. Pine Needles: sorting the wheat from the chaff for decades.

Going into the final round of the 2022 edition, it looks as though Pine Needles will crown another multiple-major-winning US Open champion later today. Minjee Lee, last year’s winner at the Evian, is three shots clear of Mina Harigae, six clear of third-placed Bronte Law, and seven ahead of a star-packed peleton. The 26-year-old from Perth, Australia is 18 solid holes away from her first US Open and her second major title. After rounds of 67, 66 and 67, you wouldn’t bet the farm against her.

But strange things can happen on any given major Sunday. Lexi Thompson, at one point five clear of the field at Olympia last year before collapsing on the back nine in the Arnold Palmer style, can attest to that. So nothing’s certain … and there’s one hell of a field waiting to take advantage of any big slip-up from the leader Lee. Harigae shot a best-of-week 64 on Thursday. Bronte Law, the street-fighting hero of Europe’s 2019 Solheim Cup win at Gleneagles, is finally making her mark at the majors. Ko Jin-young, Nelly Korda and Lydia Ko are the world’s number one, two and three players respectively. (Lee is four.) Anna Nordqvist knows how to close out a major, her amateur compatriot Ingrid Lindblad is having the week of her life, Megan Khang surely has to land a big title soon, Choi Hye-jin nearly won this prize in 2017 as a 17-year-old amateur, and Leona Maguire has already proven her ability to shoot 61 – 61! – on the final day at a major. (Last year’s Evian, for the record.) So yes, anything can happen.

Here’s how the top of the leaderboard looks after 54 holes. These leaders start making their way out on the course at approximately 1.30pm local, 6.30pm BST. We’ll get going then. It’s on!

-13: Minjee Lee

-10: Mina Harigae

-7: Bronte Law

-6: Lydia Ko, Lin Xiyu, Ingrid Lindblad (a), Ko Jin-young, Anna Nordqvist, Choi Hye-jin

-5: Leona Maguire, Ji Eun-hee, Megan Khang, Moriya Jutanugarn

-4: Nelly Korda