Kupcho takes lead into final round

WASHINGTON: Top-ranked Jennifer Kupcho will take a one-shot lead into Saturday’s final round of the inaugural Augusta National Women’s Amateur. Kupcho, the reigning US collegiate champion, fired a second-round 71 at Champions Retreat Golf Club in Evans, Georgia, for a five-under-par total going into the final round — which will see women competing for a trophy for the first time at Augusta National — long the home of the Masters men’s major. Kupcho, 21, was coming off a “perfect” first round of 68 that had left her tied overnight with 16-year-old Zoe Campos. She was three-under for the day before her first bogey of the week at her 14th hole of the day, the par-four fifth. She dropped another shot at the eighth to finish the day one stroke in front of Mexico’s Maria Fassi, who had an eagle, five birdies and five bogeys in a 70. It was a further stroke back to Thailand’s Pimnipa Panthong and American’s Sierra Brooks and Kaitlyn Pap. Campos was four shots adrift after a three-over 75.