Pettersen still leading at Taiwan

Suzann Pettersen got off to a slow start, but is still in the lead at the Sunrise LPGA Taiwan Championship as finished with a 1-over-par 73 Saturday.

Pettersen carded three birdies and four bogeys to take a four-stroke lead over South Korean Sun Young Yoo and Spaniards Azahara Munoz and Carlota Ciganda heading into Sunday's final round at Sunrise Golf & Country Club in Yang Mei, Taoyuan, Taiwan.

The Norwegian bogeyed at holes 2, 4, and 5 but only lost one shot off her lead for the day.

"You know, I had a great warmup, felt good," Pettersen said. "On the second, I kind of made a little amateur mistake trying to get too cute on the tee ball and left myself with a very tough up-and-down. I just couldn't get it going and made a few errors. Today was a tough day for me. It was all about hanging in there and trying to bring it back to where I started."

She rebounded with birdies at the par-5 eighth and par-5 13th. Another bogey at the 17th was followed by a birdie at the 18th to bring her three-day total to 6-under par.

Despite the rough patches, she still heads into the final round Sunday with a comfortable lead.

"I could easily have lost it out there today," Pettersen said. "It was -- you know, some days are easy, some days are not that easy, some of the times you see everything you're going to do right in front of you. Other times you fall in-between clubs and are not quite sure and then you start questioning if it's enough, if you had enough -- if it's going to be too spinning. It's one of those days where you can be very analytic, and it's all in the conditions to be analytic. One more day in these conditions."

If Pettersen wins the tournament, it will be the first time she has successfully defended a title on the LPGA Tour.