Olympic golf 2016: Split tee times for Saturday’s final round in Rio

There are just 18 holes to go (barring a playoff or three) before a woman earns golf’s first gold medal since 1900. In contrast to the men’s event, which was missing several big names, nine of the top 10 women in the Rolex Rankings started in Rio this week — Zika virus be damned. (Reigning Women’s British Open champion Ariya Jutanugarn withdrew after 13 holes of Friday’s round three with a knee injury.)

It took the men three-plus rounds to hook TV viewers on the Olympic golf experience, so it was no surprise that Wednesday’s first round of the women’s event got off to a similarly sluggish start.

It was more than the paucity of patrons that gave day one a sleepy feel; the 5-1/2 hours some contenders needed to complete their rounds threatened to turn the week into a snooze-fest. Brazil’s own Victoria Lovelady paid the price for the creepy-crawly pace, making history as the first Olympian to incur a one-shot penalty for slow play — despite the fact that the men were no faster last week.

A protracted discussion about whether or not Marianne Skarpnord caused her ball to move on the green (an official blamed the wind — the strongest it had blown in two weeks of the men’s and women’s events) did nothing to accelerate the pace on day three.

New Zealand’s Lydia Ko required five hours to finish her third round, but she did what she had to do on moving day, vaulting up the leaderboard on the strength of an ace on the par-3 eighth hole.

A follow-up birdie on No. 9 — her fourth and final one of the day — and nine straight pars coming in gave her a bogey-free 6-under 65 for the day. That got Ko to 9-under overall, just two shots back of 36- and 54-hole leader Inbee Park of South Korea (70 in round three) and in a tie for second with American Gerina Piller (68). The three will play together in the final grouping on Saturday.

The first three rounds all began at 6:30 a.m. ET, but with inclement weather predicted for Saturday afternoon, the women will go off split tees (Nos. 1 and 10) starting at 6 a.m. Unless there’s a playoff (or multiple extra frames, since the format calls for overtime to determine ties for gold, silver, and bronze medals), stormy weather earlier than the forecast calls for, or a return of the glacial tempo that marred Wednesday’s opening round, the 59-woman field should wrap it up by 1 p.m. The medal ceremony will follow immediately after play ends

As it has all week, Golf Channel will broadcast the fourth and final round. The network will be live on the air at 5 a.m. ET and will carry the telecast from the first tee time at 6 a.m. through the medal ceremony with its post-game show.

Here’s the full tee sheet for Saturday’s final round in Rio:

Tee No. 1

6:05 a.m.: Alejandra Llaneza, Gaby Lopez, Catriona Matthew

6:16 a.m.: Caroline Masson, Sandra Gal, Stephanie Meadow

6:27 a.m.: Pornanong Phatlum, Sei Young Kim, Leona Maguire

6:38 a.m.: Marianne Skarpnord, Albane Valenzuela, Candie Kung

6:49 a.m.: Azahara Munoz, Harukyo Nomura, Teresa Lu

7:00 a.m.: Brooke Henderson, Stacy Lewis, Nanna Koersta Madsen

7:11 a.m.: Suzann Pettersen, Anna Nordqvist, Minjee Lee

7:22 a.m.: Charley Hull Su Oh, Paula Reto

7:33 a.m.: Shanshan Feng, Hee Young yang, In Gee Chun

7:44 a.m.: Inbee Park, Lydia Ko, Gerina Piller

Tee No. 10

6:00 a.m.: Mariajo Uribe, Lexi Thompson, Aditi Ashok

6:11 a.m.: Pernilla Lindberg, Laetitia Beck, Alena Sharp

6:22 a.m.: Julieta Granada, Nicole Broch Larsen, Christine Wolf

6:33 a.m.: Carlota Ciganda, Maria Verchenova, Karine Icher

6:44 a.m.: Gwladys Nocera Pucet, Shiho Oyama, Tiffany Chan

6:55 a.m.: Xiyu Lin, Klara Spilkova, Noora Tamminen

7:06 a.m.: Ashleigh Simon, Ursula Wikstrom, Kelly Tan

7:17 a.m.: Michelle Koh, Fabienne In-Albon, Chloe Leurquin

7:28 a.m.: Miriam Nagl, Giulia Sergas, Giulia Molinaro

7:39 a.m.: Victoria Lovelady, Maha Haddioui