PINEHURST, North Carolina (AP) ― In the midst of throwing away a four-shot lead, Michelle Wie never lost sight of the big picture at Pinehurst No. 2.

The U.S. Women’s Open rarely goes according to plan, and Saturday was no exception. Wie knows that from experience long ago, and she settled down with four important pars to wind up with a 54-hole share of the lead for the third time in her career.

Wie was a teenager the other two times. Now at 24, she was one round away from capturing her first major.

“I’m just grateful for another opportunity,” Wie said after salvaging a 2-over 72 to tie Amy Yang. “Tomorrow I’m going to play as hard as I can and hope for the best.”

Yang, who earned a spot in the final group for the second time in three years, didn’t make a par until the eighth hole in a wild round so typical of this day. Only a sloppy bogey on the final hole cost her the outright lead, though she was more than happy with a 68.

They were at 2-under 208, the only players still under par.

A pivotal moment for Wie came on the 12th hole. She reached 6 under for the tournament with back-to-back birdies at the turn. She made her first double bogey of the tournament with a tee shot she hooked into the pine trees on the 11th. Her next drive sailed well to the right and settled on a sandy path. Instead of punching under the trees and over the bunker to the green ― anything long is a tough up-and-down ― she pitched out to the fairway and made bogey.

“U.S. Opens are tough,” she said. “I feel like maybe on a different golf course, I would have taken that chance. You just don’t want to be too greedy out here. Even though you make bogey, sometimes you just don’t want to make a double out here. I felt like I made the right decision there.”

The USGA set the course up relative to what the men faced last Saturday in the U.S. Open when wire-to-wire winner Martin Kaymer had his only over-par round with a 72. It was short (6,270 yards) but tough because of the pin positions.

That didn’t stop Juli Inkster. The 53-year-old Hall of Famer, who has said her 35th appearance in the Women’s Open will be her last, had a tournament-best 66 to get into contention. She will be in the penultimate group, four shots out of the lead, still dreaming of a third Open title that would make her by 10 years the oldest Women’s Open winner.

“You can think and you can dream all you want,” Inkster said. “But the bottom line is you’ve got to come out and make the shots. And if I’m tied for the lead coming up 18, then maybe I’ll think about it. I’ve got a long way to go. I’m just going to enjoy the moment and hit a few balls and see what happens.”

Also remaining in the hunt was Lexi Thompson, who won the first LPGA major this year in a final-round duel with Wie, and pulled within one shot of Wie with a pair of birdies early in the round.

It fell apart on two holes. Thompson missed the green to the left on No. 8 ― the worst spot at Pinehurst ― and her first chip fell down the slope, leading to double bogey. On the next hole, she went long over the green and chose to take relief she really didn’t need from a white line marking the TV tower. Thompson went to the drop zone, and her ball rolled back into a divot. Worst yet, she still used her putter, and it hopped high out of the divot and had no chance to reach the green. 


Moore leads at Travelers

CROMWELL, Connecticut (AP) ― Ryan Moore is in contention in the Travelers Championship ― again.

Moore had an eagle and two birdies Saturday in a bogey-free 4-under 66 to take a one-stroke lead over Aaron Baddeley into the final round.

“This is a tournament I really want to win and I know it’s a tournament I can win,” said Moore, who has four top-10 finishes in eight starts in the event.

The 31-year-old Moore had a 13-under 197 total at TPC River Highlands after opening with rounds of 63 and 68.

He won the CIMB Classic in Malaysia at the start of the season in October for his third PGA Tour title.

“Today was a great examples of ‘It doesn’t have to be pretty’ to shoot a great golf score,” Moore said.

“I honestly didn’t feel great all day hitting the ball, but drove it well enough to kind of keep myself out of trouble.”

Moore eagled the par-5 sixth, holing a 37-foot putt from just off the green, to take the lead early in the afternoon. He has made one eagle in each of his three rounds this week.

The eagle on No. 6 was something of a lucky break, Moore says, as his drive was off target.

“I hit it right off the tee, quite a bit right and straight into the trees, which is not a good place to be, and obviously walking up I did not think I was going to have a shot at all,” Moore said.

“Just planned on pitching out almost sideways with the way the rough is. And apparently got a really good bounce and chased way down the cart path, and I was actually still sitting on the edge of the cart path and I was only maybe 230 yards out. So it had gotten pretty far down there.”

Moore chipped in for a birdie on No. 11 to move to 12 under and break a four-way tie for the lead.

No one who has held a share of the third-round lead has won the Travelers since Stewart Cink in 2008.

Baddeley had six birdies and a bogey in a 65.

“Around here you feel like you should birdie every hole. There are a lot of birdie holes out there,” said Baddeley, the Australian who won the last of his three PGA Tour titles in 2011.

“But you have to be patient.”

Sergio Garcia, Choi Kyung-ju, Scott Langley and Michael Putnam were tied for third at 11 under. Garcia had a 65, Choi shot 69, Langley 70 and Putnam 69.

Garcia has five top-10 finishes in nine PGA Tour starts this season, and won the European Tour’s Qatar Masters in January.

“It’s been a solid season so far,” Garcia said. “There’s no question I’d like to have played better at the Masters and last week (at the U.S. Open).”