World No.1 Lydia Ko started to hit her straps during the third round of the LPGA's Lotte Championship to surge up the leaderboard, and in turn, lift her hopes of keeping her top spot.
Korean So Yeon Ryu can wrest it away from Ko if she wins the tournament and the Kiwi finishes 5th or worse.
After three completed rounds the Korean sits in 5th spot, one ahead of Ko.
The Kiwi jumped 34 spots on 'moving day' in Hawaii, continuing her rapid turn in form after a poor start to the tournament – shooting 73 on day one.
A seven-under 65 not only prevented Ko from the threat of missing the cut, but also gives her an outside chance of claiming an unlikely win.
Korea's Su-Yeon Yang currently leads at 17-under, eight shots ahead of the New Zealand number 1.
Ko carded seven birdies and managed to stay bogey-free – which has been the knock on the Kiwi in 2017. Despite four finishes inside the top 11, Ko's short game has been below standard, and seen her fall to 87th on the LPGA's tour putting averages.
This, after finishing comfortably first in 2016.
"Putting was better the past few days," said Ko.
"I got some longer range putts to go in which I haven't seen that much this season.
"Those are really bonuses and I was able to combine the whole game well today and I think that was the huge difference between the last couple of days."
Ko said she is unfazed by talk around her ranking – she acknowledges the talent on course but just wants to continue to improve her own game.
"I haven't been able to play as well as I would have liked. Hopefully now I can straighten things out and play as well as the other girls are doing.
There is just so much talent out here," said Ko.
Newshub.
