After Saturday chaos at Lytham, an unexpected leader faces major questions and the unknown

After six holes on Saturday, Haeran Ryu’s march to history seemed destined. Gunning for her third consecutive major win, Ryu had birdied three of her first six holes to stretch her lead to four at the AIG Women’s Open.

A coronation appeared to be in the cards. Chaos arrived instead.

Ryu blew her tee shot on the par-5 seventh into a thick gorse bush and had to take an unplayable. She made bogey and dropped another shot at No. 8. Bogeys at 10, 12 and 14 came like haymakers as Ryu went from up four to trailing by three as the wind and brutal back nine at Royal Lytham and St. Annes refused to let her off the mat.

As Ryu struggled to hang on, the chasers, whose chances of hoisting a trophy on Sunday once looked dire, got a second wind

Charley Hull, who at one point was 10 shots back of Ryu after a shaky start, carded birdies at seven and eight and then added late birdies at 15 and 16 to get into the house at two under and give herself a chance come Sunday.

There was Lottie Woad, who was eight shots back of Ryu when she made the turn, steadying herself on the grueling back nine post three under and kept her title hopes alive.

“I think just the more times you’re in that position, the more comfortable you get,” Woad said after her third round. “Like I know I can play well in this tournament and I have done the last two years and had that experience being in the mix. And even this year, obviously a few weeks ago, I was leading at Evian, so I could use that experience as well. The more times you put yourself in that position is obviously a good thing.”

Jeeno Thitikul started the day two shots back of Ryu and seemed like the most likely contender to author a Saturday charge. But that deficit grew to six when Ryu raced out to a fast start while Thitikul struggled to get her putter to heat up. After back-to-back bogeys at No. 4 and No. 5, it looked like the northwest English winds had blown away Thitikul’s hopes for her first career major title. But the World No. 2 played her final 12 holes in one under par, finishing at four under par.

Esther Henseleit, Lucy Li and Shiho Kuwaki also find themselves in the mix come Sunday after Ryu’s stumbles.

But no chaser got more life from Ryu’s fall than Yealimi Noh.

The 25-year-old American found herself seven shots back of Ryu after she bogeyed the par-5 seventh hole. But as Royal Lytham prepared to batter Ryu, Noh rediscovered her tempo and started to grab the year’s final major by the neck. She made birdies at nine, 10 and 11 to grab a share of the lead. When she made her final birdie of the day at No. 16, Yealimi Noh had suddenly gone from seven back to three clear of the field with 18 holes to play. From on the periphery to the final major’s main character in the blink of an eye.

Noh’s Women’s Open resurgence wasn’t on the pre-week script.

She has made just seven of 14 cuts entering the week, with zero top 10s. Prior to her opening round 4-under 67, Noh had not broken par in an LPGA stroke-play event since April. She missed the cut at the KPMG Women’s PGA and the Evian before flying back to the U.S. to work on her game and re-center herself. The weeks off allowed her to “refresh mentally” and “not be so stressed” over the ball. Her fiancé, Jackson Suh, reminded her “that golf can be fun.”

This week, in the seaside town of Lytham St. Annes, Yealimi Noh is having fun. But Sunday will bring a different test. Noh has just two major top 10s in her career, has never held a 54-hole lead at a major and has only one career victory on the LPGA.

She’ll arrive Sunday at Lytham as the hunted — not knowing how she’ll react or what awaits on her 18-hole walk toward history — hoping her dreams await her on the horizon.

“I want to imagine it so I can manifest it,” Noh said after her third round about envisioning a win. “I don’t know, it’s just another round of golf tomorrow, and hopefully it all goes well, and I can do all the things after.

“Sometimes it’s hard to be positive, especially with golf. Like it can be really tough. But manifestation is important.”

Noh arrived at Lytham just hoping to feel calmer over the ball and break par. An opening 67 set her up for a positive week. As Saturday began, it looked like Noh and others would quickly be exiting the proceedings to play a supporting role in Ryu’s march to her third consecutive major. Eleven holes later, Yealimi Noh tapped in for a closing par and a three-shot lead over Ryu, Thitikul, Henseleit, Li and Kuwaki. She leads Woad by four and Hull by five. All will have their ears pinned back, hoping to track her down on a baked-out Lytham.

Yealimi Noh will spend Saturday night in Lytham visualizing what she hopes Sunday evening brings. That her dreams will be in her hands as the sun sets over northwest England on Sunday night. That 18 holes and a positive mindset can deliver her something she’s always envisioned for herself, even if she might not have believed it would come this week. That sometimes golf can give you what you most need when you least expect it.

But if Saturday’s chaos-filled day at Royal Lytham showed us anything, it’s that there’s still a long way to go between Yealimi Noh and her dreams. In fact, her journey hasn’t even started.