"Today, I just wanted to finish," she said after the round. "I did not have a score in mind."
Last year, Morgan Pressel, who finished well before the third-round leaders and then watched them not be able to match the number she had posted, won the Kraft Nabisco. Sorenstam will be in a similar position on Sunday. She tees off four groups in front of Ochoa, Hee-Won Han, who is at five under par, and Cristie Kerr, who is at four under.
"If I feel good, then I am going to charge [on Sunday]," Sorenstam said. If Sorenstam should happen to post a number early, and if that number should happen to hold up, this will truly be a golf tournament that was won not in the last round, but on Saturday -- on a day when few would have even finished the round.
Ultimately, champions are defined not so much by their athletic ability as by the intangibles they bring to the table. Greatness has as much to do with heart and pride as it does with base hits or birdies.
Lurking around a corner not yet identified is the end of the 37-year-old Sorenstam's competitive golf career. But judging by many things she has said, the transition from professional golfer to professional business woman is not all that far away. When the end does arrive, when the LPGA victory total that now stands at 70, and the major championship total that now stands at 10, is finalized, many of her triumphs will be recalled.
But even if it turns out Sorenstam does not win the Kraft Nabisco Championship on Sunday, the round she pieced together on Saturday at Mission Hills will be remembered by those who saw it as one of the most impressive of her career. Like Muhammad Ali, the body may break but never the heart. Champions don't quit. And what Sorenstam put on Saturday at Mission Hills was a major championship performance.
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