Olson 2nd after 3 Rounds in 1st LPGA Major of 2018

RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. -- Amy Olson is No. 218 in the Rolex Women's World Golf Rankings. She's never won in four-plus seasons on the LPGA Tour (she has two top-10 finishes), and she's never finished higher than a tie for 52nd place in a major tournament. Nevertheless, she shot a 4-under-par 68 on Saturday, and as a result she will begin the final round of the ANA Inspiration in second place, three strokes out of first. 

The ANA is the first major tournament of the year on the LPGA schedule, and the player who leads the field, Pernilla Lindberg, has never won an LPGA event, either. As a matter of fact, the 31-year-old Swede has never won in 250 tournaments as a professional, on the LPGA Futures Tour (2009), the Ladies European Tour and the LPGA Tour. But she opened the ANA with a 65 on the Dinah Shore Tournament Course at Mission Hills Country Club and followed it with a 67 on Friday.

She looked a little shaky down the stretch on Saturday, making a 15-foot putt for par at the 387-yard, par-4 15th hole, getting up and down for par from 10 yards short at the 418-yard, par-4 16th, bogeying the 179-yard, par-3 17th and then flaring her 3-wood right off the tee at the 531-yard, par-5 18th. Lindberg barely got her next shot, a 6-iron layup off the ground out of the thick rough and left herself a 150-yard third shot. Undaunted, she hit a 7-iron to within 4 feet of the cup and made the birdie putt for a 70.

That put her at 202, 14 under.

Olson will be paired with Lindberg in the final group on Sunday. In theory, the 25-year-old former North Dakota State star from Oxbow, N.D., should have an advantage off the tee. On Saturday, she hit 11 of 14 fairways and averaged 291.5 yards, compared with 8 of 14 fairways and 255.5 yards for Lindberg. Through three rounds, Olson is averaging 277.17 yards off the tee, Lindberg 261.5. 

The first hole at the Shore Course is a 377-yard par-4, and Olson started her round with a birdie there. After six pars, she added a birdie at the eighth hole (169 yards, par 3), and she put her length to good use at the  par-5 11th (554 yards), making another birdie there. She birdied the 12th (359, par 4), as well, before giving one back with a bogey at the the 387-yard, par-4 13th. But she finished the round by making a 10-footer for birdie at the par-5 18th, which got her to 11 under (205) for 54 holes.

Right behind her, at 206, is a pack of five chasers, including Inbee Park, a former world No. 1. 

For anyone who might not recognize Olson's name, it used to be Anderson, before she got married in 2017. 

As Amy Anderson, she won the Minnesota Section PGA Girls Junior Championship twice (2008 and '09), and followed the second of those victories by winning the '09 U.S. Girls Junior. Shortly after that, even though she wasn't quite 17 years and 2 months old, she started her freshman year at NDSU. Despite starting college a year early, she did well academically, getting a degree in accounting. And while she was at it, she won 20 tournaments, thereby breaking the old record of 17 that had been set by Juli Inkster in her four years at San Jose State (1978-82).

(In 2015, Anderson passed the exams required to become a Certified Public Accountant. That makes her a pretty popular person at this time of year, as LPGA players prepare to file their tax forms -- and tend to have questions about such things as write-offs and other deductions.)  

Anderson cruised through the LPGA Tour's Q-School on her first try, in the fall of 2013. But her success as an amateur hasn't translated into a lot of high finishes on the LPGA Tour. At least, not yet. In 2016, she failed to finish among the top 100 on the tour money list and had to go back to Q-School. She barely got through on the second try, and she came close to losing her LPGA privileges again in 2017, finishing No 97 on the money list. But the now married Amy Olson got off to a good start this year, making the cut in each of the four tournaments she played before this week, including a tie for 11th three weeks ago in Phoenix at the Bank of Hope Founders Cup.

Coming into this week, she was 48th on the money list with $43,765. The winner of the ANA will take home a check of more than $400,000.   


LPGA TOUR

ANA Inspiration

At Mission Hills Country Club

Dinah Shore Tournament Course

Par 72, 6,763 yards

Rancho Mirage, Calif. 

Third-round results 

1. Pernilla Lindberg              65-67-70--202

2. Amy Olson                       69-68-68--205

T3. Moriya Jutanugarn         70-70-66--206

T3. Inbee Park                     70-69-67--206

T3. Jennifer Song                69-69-68--206

T3. Jodi Ewart Shadoff        70-67-69--206

T3. Charley Hull                  69-68-69--206