Cognizant Founders Cup: Sagstrom leads into final day

At the start of the week, all eyes were on Nelly Korda and her chance at making it six victories in a row. Whilst she sits in a tie for third heading into the final round, the sixth title is most likely out of reach with a gulf of 10 shots between her and second placed Rose Zhang and leader Madelene Sagstrom sits a further shot ahead. History may not be broken on Sunday but we're in for a fantastic final round battle.

Both players stole the show on Saturday, as they seemed to dominate Upper Montclair Country Club on Moving Day. Sagstrom and Zhang each shot their third consecutive round in the 60s.

Sagstrom made a quick birdie on the second hole before hitting a streak of pars from holes three to six.  The Swede then began to pick up steam in her round toward the end of her front nine, carding three consecutive birdies on the par-4 7th, par-3 8th and par-5 9th holes. Making the turn at four-under-par, she again kept quiet at Upper Montclair until 14, where she carded her fifth birdie of the day. One last birdie came on her second-to-last hole, as she made the putt to reach 19-under par for the tournament.

Watch third round highlights from the Cognizant Founders Cup

“I thought I was going to make everything today. I looked at everything, oh, this is going in, oh, this is going in,” said Sagstrom, who carded no bogeys on Saturday and recorded her fourth bogey-free round since the start of 2024. “I felt like there was a lot of movement in my body when they were hitting the edges. I felt so in sync with my speed. It's been great, so everything looked like they were going in, burning edged all day long. It's a nice feeling knowing wherever I am on the green, I have a chance to make birdie, which relaxes the rest of the game a little bit. Shane was like, we just need to hit the green, and I can figure it out from there.”

Rose Zhang back in contention

For the only time on Saturday, Zhang moved into solo lead with a birdie on her first hole, but she followed it up with a bogey on the par-5 2nd hole to fall one shot behind Sagstrom. The 20-year-old carded two more birdies on her front nine on five and seven, making the turn at two-under-par. Zhang then went birdie-bogey-birdie on her first three holes of the back nine, still sitting one shot behind the lead. She made back-to-back birdies on holes 14 and 15 before parring out the rest of the round.  

“Very satisfied with how I played,” said Zhang, who has carded the most birdies (21) and the least amount of putts (79) across the field over the last three rounds. “I feel like the last two days gained a little bit of confidence in my own game, and it's nice to see some putts continue to drop. Even though I had a couple of errant shots, I felt like I got back into it pretty quickly. Overall, just very satisfied.

“I think it was just such a blast to really see my shots and be able to hit whatever I could and commit to everything. Seeing it come to fruition leaves me very satisfied,” said Zhang, who will return next week to the Mizuho Americas Open as the defending champion. “Obviously, no matter what happens tomorrow, it's more so just at least I have this little spark of I've got some good rounds in competitively, and I can move forward with that.”

Both players, who sit 10 or more shots ahead of the other 70 players in the field, return on Sunday to battle for the second LPGA Tour trophies of their careers. Tee times begin at 6:55 am ET, with the final group of Sagstrom and Zhang starting their rounds at 12:45 pm ET.

Watch live coverage of the final round in the UK via Sky Sports Golf YouTube from 7:00pm BST

View the full Cognizant Founders Cup leaderboard here.