Nelly Korda of the U.S. reacts after a missed birdie attempt on the seventh hole, during the third round of play in the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship golf tournament Saturday in Johns Creek, Ga.

JOHNS CREEK, Ga. (AP) — Lizette Salas spent much of her time Saturday looking at Nelly Korda ahead of her in the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.

In the fairway, not on the leaderboard.

Korda blasted a drive on the opening hole at Atlanta Athletic Club and hit 9-iron to 4 feet. Salas hit 7-wood to the middle of the green and holed a 45-foot birdie putt to match her.

It was like that throughout the front nine, where Salas turned a one-shot deficit into a two-shot lead until Korda finally caught up to her on the back nine.

Salas had a third straight 5-under 67. Korda had a 68. They were tied for the lead at 15-under 201, five shots clear of anyone else.

“Lizette was rolling in some nice ones today and I told myself, ‘I’ve got to hit it close to even keep up with her,’” Korda said. “When you get into that mindset of kind of egging each other on, it’s fun, but it’s also nerve-racking.”

Two very different games ultimately led to the same score. The one commonality is both are chasing their first major championship Sunday.

At stake for Korda is a chance to reach No. 1 in the world.

Salas relied on precision and big putts to make up for a big power gap against Korda. She was close to flawless on the front nine with a 30 until her first bogey of the tournament on No. 10 slowed her momentum .

Korda, the 22-year-old coming off a victory last week on the LPGA Tour, played bogey-free but failed to use her length to capitalize on the par 5s on the back nine.

“Knowing that I’m not the longest hitter, I think I’m used to that,” Salas said. “I think I’m just so comfortable in saying, ‘You know what? I’m going to hit first,’ and knowing my game. … Let’s just play boring golf and let’s give ourselves good looks at birdie.”

They were five shots ahead of a trio that includes Patty Tavatanakit, the Thai star who won the first LPGA Tour major of the year at the ANA Inspiration. Tavatanakit ran off four straight birdies toward the end of her round for a 65.

Joining her five shots behind were Giulia Molinaro of Italy (66) and Celine Boutier of France, who had a 69 while playing in the final group with the co-leaders.

Boutier had reason to think she was out of the tournament when she fell nine shots behind as the group was approaching the turn. She was playing fine. It’s just that Salas was playing out of this world, and Korda was close to the same.

Salas, who began the week by sharing her emotional struggles of coping with the COVID-19 pandemic, began her round by holing that 45-foot putt across the green. After a wedge to 3 feet for a birdie on the par-5 second, she drained a 35-foot birdie putt on No. 3.

s tomorrow, I feel like I already have a solid week, considering my situation with the driver. I feel like I really have proved to myself that I can play out here under any circumstances.”

PGA TOUR

CROMWELL, Conn. (AP) — Kramer Hickok finished the third round of the Travelers Championship too late in the day to go fly fishing again.

He’ll have to wait until Sunday to try to reel in the biggest catch of his career.

The 29-year-old minor league tour regular shot a 2-under 68 on Saturday to tie for the lead with three-time winner Bubba Watson. Hickok, who has never won on the PGA Tour, opened a two-stroke lead before bogeying the final two holes.

“I thought I’d be a lot more nervous than I am,” said Hickok, who went fly fishing on the nearby Farmington River after the first round. “I know those nerves are going to be there. It’s just embracing those nerves, not trying to fight it.”

Watson shot a 68 at the TPC River Highlands, picking up three strokes on Hickok over the final two holes. Jason Day was also also in a tie for the lead before a bogey on No. 18 dropped him into a three-way tie at minus-9.

“When you’re playing in the afternoon you know the challenge ahead of you,” said Watson, who won the event in 2010, ‘15 and ‘18. “You don’t want to play safe. In my stage of my career if I have a chance to win I’m going to go for it. That’s the key. I’m not going to worry about third or fourth place. I am going to try to go for it if I can.”

Hickock was 12 under — two strokes ahead of Day and three in front of Watson — heading to the 17th before flying the green and missing a 10-foot par putt. He was still a stroke ahead of the final pairing before three-putting from 8 feet on No. 18 to fall back into a tie.

“I’ve been in contention before,” said Hickok, who has victories on the Korn Ferry Tour and the Canadian Mackenzie Tour. “Obviously, this is a bigger stage. But it’s just about going out there and playing golf, and I play my best when I’m relaxed.”

Watson birdied No. 17 to move to 10 under and then missed a 5-foot birdie putt on No. 18 that would have given him the lead. Day, the overnight leader, putted past the 18th hole from 22 feet for a bogey to finish at 70.

Cameron Smith (66) and Russell Henley (68) also were 9 under, and three players were another stroke back.

Defending champion Dustin Johnson, who birdied the last two holes on Friday to make the cut on the number, shot 65 to climb into a tie for ninth at minus-7. The former world No. 1 reached the clubhouse just two strokes off Day’s 36-hole lead.

“To birdie the last two yesterday to make the cut, which I definitely wanted to be here for the weekend, and obviously go out today and shoot a nice score, it was good,” he said. “So I feel like the game is coming around.”

Johnson shot 61 on Saturday last year to move from a tie for 20th into second, two strokes behind leader Brendan Todd. His victory was his first in 490 days; a win on Sunday would give him his first victory of 2021.

NOTES: Abraham Ancer made a hole-in-one with a 7-iron on the 179-yard eighth hole. It was his second straight year with an ace at TPC River Highlands. He had a 1 on the 169-yard 16th hole in the first round last year, when he tied for 11th. Kyle Stanley also made a 1 with a 7-iron on the eighth. … Mark Hubbard took some time out from his round to help a wayward turtle find its way back to a pond after it had wandered onto the eighth green. “He’s out there playing lift, clean and place,” announcer Jim Nantz said on the broadcast.

Champions Tour

AKRON, Ohio (AP) — Three opening birdies gave Steve Stricker an eight-shot lead in what looked to be a runaway in the Bridgestone Seniors Players Championship on Saturday.

By the end of the day, Stricker was hanging on at Firestone.

Stricker started missing greens and missing putts until his lead was down to three shots. He steadied himself with a birdie on the par-5 16th and wound up with a 2-over 72 to lead Jerry Kelly by four shots going into the final round.

“I like where I stand now more than three hours ago,” said Kelly, the defending champion who trailed by as many as 10 shots at one point.

Stricker three-putted the 10th, took double bogey from the bunker on the par-3 12th and missed the green for bogeys on the 14th and 15th holes as his lead kept shrinking.

He narrowly cleared the water on the par-5 16th with a 4-iron and the ball bounded over the green into the rough. Facing a scary pitch back down toward the water, he lofted it perfectly to 4 feet for birdie.

Two regulation pars put him at 7-under 203.

“I had a five-shot lead starting the day, I’ve got four now, so all in all I didn’t give away too many,” Stricker said. “Had an opportunity to kind of really distance myself, and that was the plan today is to get out, get going and be aggressive and make some birdies and get out ahead. But kind of got side-tracked there in the middle.”

Kelly, who opened with a birdie, shot a 68. Ken Duke had a 70 and was another shot behind at 2-under 208. They were the only players who remained under par.

Stricker is going for his second victory of the year, and it looked for so long that this one might be a breeze. Starting with a five-shot lead, he birdied the first three holes to stretch his lead to eight shots over Paul Broadhurst and 10 shots over Kelly.

Stricker had gone 39 holes without a bogey until his first one at No. 4. He still was in command until it all started to fall apart on the back nine.

“Until you’ve made that first bogey, you feel like you’re pretty invincible,” Kelly said.

Stricker caught a bad break when his 6-iron on the 12th caught the top of the bunker and rolled into a lie so bad he couldn’t even get it on the green. Suddenly, it felt as though everything that could go wrong did until he played solidly over the final three holes.

“I’m fine,” Stricker said. “I just wish I didn’t have the little hiccups there in the middle.”

The winner of this major on the PGA Tour Champions gets a spot in The Players Championship at the TPC Sawgrass next March.

EUROPEAN TOUR

MUNICH (AP) — Viktor Hovland is a round away from becoming the European Tour’s first Norwegian winner after he opened up a three-shot lead in the third round of the BMW International Open on Saturday.

Five birdies on the back nine helped Hovland record the best round of the day with an 8-under 64 as he moved to 17 under for the tournament.

“I just try to stay within myself. I look at leaderboards to see where I’m at, but instead of trying to force things, I just tell myself at the start of the day just to take control of my own game,” Hovland said.

“If I don’t waste shots here and there, just play smart, trust that I’m doing the right things, I think I should have a really good shot tomorrow.”

Hovland already has two U.S. PGA Tour titles from the Mayakoba Golf Classic in December and the Puerto Rico Open in February 2020.

Jorge Campillo is in second place on 14 under, with Darren Fichardt one shot further back.

Second-round leader Niall Kearney is tied on 11 under with Bernd Wiesberger.