After 54 grueling holes, players prepped - and even praying - for a fourth round

KAWAGOE, Japan – With sweat stinging her eyes, Nelly Korda strained to decipher the outsized leaderboard adjacent the final hole at Kasumigaseki Country Club.

Normally, a Moving Day glance at the board is cursory. They don’t hand out trophies after the third round. Or maybe in this case, they do.

The strangest of tournaments is a nervy 18 holes from the finish line and with a little help from a tropical storm named Mirinae, it would be a fitting finish for a group of Olympic athletes who have endured everything these Summer Games and Mother Nature have thrown in their direction.

“My mindset is 72 holes so I’m sticking to that,” said Korda, following a third-round 69 that left her three shots clear of Aditi Ashok. “I’m trying to give myself opportunities and make them, that’s all. I’m trying to stay as present as possible and see how it goes.”

Most agreed with Korda’s all-business assessment. If Mirinae arrives Saturday at Kasumigaseki and washes away some Olympic dreams, so be it. But until then, there’s safety in the cliches. The alternative would be too maddening.

Full-field scores from the Olympic Women’s Competition

In a notice that was sent to players late Friday, they were reminded that the plan is to play 72 holes even if that means pushing the finish to Sunday, when Mirinae is forecast to arrive in full force.

“In the event competitors are unable to complete 72 holes, the women’s Olympic competition will revert to a 54-hole event,” the memo read.

It’s why Friday’s board held so much intrigue for the likes of Korda. In a perfect world, no one will remember who was tied for third after 54 holes. In an imperfect world of tropical storms and a closing ceremony looming, the three-round totals could be the ultimate arbiter.

“To me, like, where I am today I’m just having fingers, toes and everything crossed to say that the weather gods will allow to us play tomorrow,” Lydia Ko said. “I feel like the Olympics itself has gone through so much and Tokyo’s gone through so much to host us, I think for it to be cut short … I feel like it will sum up the whole situation.”

Ko’s hopes and wishes went well beyond simply wanting the best for the Tokyo Games. The New Zealander is one four players tied for third place at 10 under par.

That luck that officials are hoping for on Saturday to avoid weather delays turned against the event on the final hole Friday when Japan’s Mone Inami missed a 6-footer for par to drop into a tie with Ko, Australia’s Hannah Green and Denmark’s Emily Kristine Pedersen. Had Inami converted her par putt it would have left a potentially clean podium with no ties for first, second or third. Now, in the event Mirinae disrupts play on Saturday and Sunday and forces officials to revert to the 54-hole scores, they will also have to find a way to have a sudden death for the bronze medal.

“In the event of a playoff for medal positions, the committee may alter the playoff holes, or the playoff order of holes, depending on weather and course conditions,” the notice to players read.

“I would love to have one more chance to hopefully be on the podium,” said Ko, who won the silver medal at the 2016 Games.

It was a similar realization for Pedersen as she put the finishing touches on her third-round 70 for a share of a potential bronze medal.

“It’s a weird situation now because we don’t know if we’re going to get the chance to better our score or better our placement,” Pedersen said. “If I don’t get the chance – I would love to play for gold – but if I don’t get the chance, at least I have some kind of a medal [opportunity] now, but I think we’ll play, I hope we’ll play.”

It was an outlook shared by all, including Korda, who would benefit the most if officials were forced to revert to the 54-hole scores. Her gold medal would come with no asterisk, but that didn’t change her outlook. Or Ashok’s, for that matter.

With the golf hopes of India pinned to her narrow shoulders, Ashok’s 68 on Day 3 left her alone in second place and poised to win a medal five years after she became the feel-good story of the ’16 Games.

When asked about the possibility of a wet and wild few days that ends with the 54-hole scores deciding the outcome, deciding if she takes a medal back home, she turned toward the same leaderboard next to the 18^th green and eyed the scores.

“I didn’t think about it. I still feel like we’ll get the fourth round in. The weather seems too good to be so bad tomorrow, so I still feel like we have a fourth day,” Ashok said.

Optimism is free and on Day 3 at the Olympic women’s competition it was also easier to embrace, considering the confusing and convoluted alternative.