Kane & Sorenstam pull three clear

One round left for major-championship golf in Canada, maybe one round of LPGA Tour golf of any kind in the country, and a Canadian is tied for the lead.

Oh, Canada! How a nation is pulling for Lorie Kane.

"What would it mean?'' Kane asked of winning the last du Maurier Classic ever. "The world.''

Kane shot a 1-under-par 71 today to catch Annika Sorenstam -- who she was paired with -- at 6-under 210 after three rounds of the du Maurier.

With their closest pursuers Diana D'Alessio and Meg Mallon at 3-under 213, Kane and Sorenstam might be in what amounts to an 18-hole match-play tournament Sunday for the last LPGA major championship of 2000.

Sorenstam shot an even-par 72 in the sometimes distracting atmosphere of having thousands of spectators at the Royal Ottawa Golf Club pulling for Kane and scrambling between shots to catch a glimpse of Canada's favorite female golfer.

"She has a lot of fans,'' Sorenstam said to the laughter of reporters.

Kane is comfortable, and well she should be. The Prince Edward Island resident won the LPGA tour event in St. Louis for her first victory last weekend to break the spell of nine second-place finishes in only five years on the tour.

She's talked all week about how calm and confident the win has made her, even while the commotion around her here has started to approach Tigermania levels here.

"The fans have been fantastic,'' she said. "It's so much fun to walk up -- well, I can't even say to walk up to the green, because it (the applause) starts when I get onto the tee and when I leave the tee. It's 18 holes of just clapping and cheering and encouragement.''

The sense of urgency for Kane's fans and for Kane herself is heightened by the conclusion of this tournament as it is now known, and possibly for LPGA golf in Canada for all time. Du Maurier is a tobacco brand, and Canadian laws are strictly limiting the advertising cigarette companies can do after this year.

No other sponsor has emerged to keep the tournament in Canada, and no sponsor has been talking about putting up close to the money that would be needed to keep it a major, according to LPGA tour officials.

But du Maurier has sponsored both this event and a tour for fledgling Canadian female golfers and Kane said she owes her career to what she learned on that tour.

"I would not be here if I hadn't had, first of all, the du Maurier series to play when I decided to turn pro in 1993,'' she said.

Sorenstam played amid the ``Kane-adian'' mania today, as some Kane fans' T-shirts read, and said she's ready to do so again Sunday. She is seeking her first major title since 1996.

"It's no fun to be a spoiler,'' she said. "But when I come to a tournament, my goal is to win the tournament. And especially now, where I'm in the last group, I have a great chance to win a major, and I haven't done that in a long time.''

Juli Inkster and Trish Johnson were at 214.

Counting Rosie Jones, who was at 215, only seven players were under par after three rounds. Par was a good score for most players on the tight, thickly roughed course Saturday despite sunny skies and only moderate winds.

Australian Karrie Webb's dream of claiming a $1 million bonus for winning three major tournaments in one year virtually ended today. She bogeyed three of the final four holes, shot a 4-over 76 and trailed the leaders by nine strokes heading into Sunday's final round.

Sorenstam had shot consecutive 69s Thursday and Friday, but Kane was the steadier golfer today.

Sorenstam had a chance to open a significant lead but failed. At minus-8 and leading Kane by two shots, she missed a 4-foot birdie putt at the 10th. At the 11th, she had a downhill 6-footer for another birdie but whacked the ball past the cup and had twice as far coming back for a par, a putt she missed to fall to 7-under.

Sorenstam came right back with a 6-foot birdie at No. 12, as Kane moved closer by sinking a curling 15-footer for birdie at the par-5 14th.

Both players missed putts of about 5 feet to bogey the par-4 15th, and Sorenstam bogeyed at the par-5, No. 18 to fall into a tie after driving near a tree and needing four shots to get on the green.

In all, Sorenstam had four bogeys and four birdies, while Kane had 15 pars.

D'Alessio, the first-round leader, stayed near the top despite another day of erratic tee shots. Following a series of good par saves, she drove under a tree at the par-4 13th and didn't get the ball onto the green until her fourth shot. Then, after missing her putt, her ball moved as she was addressing her tap-in and she took a one-stroke penalty for a triple bogey.

She came back with a birdie at the 14th and parred the rest of the way.

Inkster had a wild round. She was at 4-under for the tournament when she triple-bogeyed the par-4 fifth after hitting her approach shot into a greenside tree. The ball didn't come down and she had to take a lost-ball penalty.

But she battled back with three birdies and two bogeys the rest of the way for a 74 today.

Johnson, from England, shot a 70 and Jones had a 71.

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