Golf: Lydia Ko in contention to push for another victory, sitting two shots behind leader at Kroger Queen City Championship

Lydia Ko will enter the final round of the LPGA’s Kroger Queen City Championship with a shot of lifting another trophy, sitting two shots back from the leader.

Ko, 27, carded a three-under 69 in her third round at TPC River’s Bend in Maineville, Ohio, to sit at 14-under for the tournament. That leaves the Kiwi just two shots back from Thailand’s Jeeno Thitikul (16-under) heading into the last round on Monday (NZ time).

China’s Yan Liu (13-under), Albane Valenzuela of Switzerland and Haeran Ryu (12-under) are also in the mix going into the finale.

Fresh from Olympic gold in Paris and winning the AIG Women’s Open, Ko’s form has only continued.

Ko entered the tournament after a four-week break, but has clearly not been hampered by time away from the course.

Starting her day at 11-under, the Kiwi opened with a bogey on the first hole, but recovered well to not drop a shot for the rest of her third round.

Ko made birdie on the eighth to finish her front nine at an even par, before making three more on the 10th, 14th and finishing with another on the 18th.

In fact, that opening bogey was the first and so far only shot Ko has dropped throughout the course of her tournament.

Ko said following her second round she would try to channel the form and mindset of the last few months as she headed into the weekend’s play.

“Being smart with the club selection off the tee and just knowing which ones I should be aggressive and which ones I should be a little bit more conservative [with].

“But, yeah, just, I feel like I set myself a good plan going into the week so that’s what I’m going to stick to. I know there is still a lot of golf to be played, so [I will] just focus on me, and I think that’s the biggest thing that I’ve been doing well these past month or so.

“So [I’ll] just stick to that.”

Ko has recorded top-10 finishes in her last four tournaments. Her last win on American soil was at the opening event of the 2024 season - the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions.

Alex Powell is an online sports editor for the NZ Herald. He has been a sports journalist since 2016, and previously worked for both Newshub and 1News.