Meanwhile, Elsewhere in the Midwest...

Let's take a break from the rumors of rain and the thunderclap of Justin Thomas's 3-wood to check out the LPGA event. The Meijer LPGA Classic is being held in Michigan -- just on the other side of Lake Michigan from Wisconsin -- and they DID get a lot of rain. The flooding was bad enough that the par-5 fifth had to be converted to a par-3 for the third round!

That didn't seem to dampen Lexi's spirits any. She has moved to the lead after her T2 (playoff loss) at the Manulife last week.



There was a 2-hour delay during Saturday's round, and the soft conditions made the US Open scoring look like a traditional Open. Lexi shot one of the many 64s that were carded, getting her to a 54-hole score of -15. But the four players tied for second (one stroke back) made some noise of their own:

• Lee-Anne Pace carded a 61
• Sung Hyun Park carded a 62
• Jenny Shin carded a 63
• Brooke Henderson must have felt like a snail after carding only a 67 (she had the lead by two when the day began)

Hyo Joo Kim is alone in sixth at -12 after a 65. And among the players tied for seventh at -11, both Michelle Wie and Lydia Ko shot 64s.

Lydia's score in particular interests me, simply because when Ariya Jutanugarn took over the Rolex #1 spot last week, she only had a .44 lead -- less than half a point. Ariya is only two shots back but, because the leaderboard is so crowded, that puts her all the way back at T18. I don't know exactly how the points get doled out, but it seems to me that Lydia can narrow the gap a lot with a good finish today.

If you decide to catch up on the LPGA before you watch the PGA Tour, GC coverage will begin at 11am ET and run till 3pm ET. That means you'll still have plenty of time to watch the leaders tee off on FOX's US Open coverage, as Stephan Jaeger and Shane Lowry tee off at 11:08am ET... and they're both part of the group at T51.