Sorenstam in command after superb round of 66

RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. – Annika Sorenstam was on the back nine of her Saturday runaway when a marshal’s loud command for the quiet crowd to get quieter forced her to back off her ball just as she was set to hit.

Sorenstam’s caddie admonished the marshal, but Sorenstam wasn’t bothered.

“That’s OK,” she told the marshal. “I’m happy.”

Bad marshaling aside, Sorenstam had a lot to be happy about in the third round of the Nabisco Championship. She didn’t make a bogey, finished with a 6-under-par 66 and built a five-stroke lead over Rosie Jones going into the final round.

In doing so, the most dominant player in women’s golf all but wrapped up the first major championship of the year while setting herself up for another entry into the LPGA record books.

“Just a great day for me out there,” Sorenstam said.

Sorenstam, of course, has been having a lot of great days lately. But her third round was among the best as she seemingly put a lock on both her record-tying fifth straight win and the first of a possible four major titles this year.

Sorenstam finished five shots ahead of Jones, but that doesn’t tell the whole story. Only two other players are closer than 10 shots behind, and Sorenstam is an intimidating presence on top of the leaderboard.

About all she has left is an 18-hole stroll today and the ceremonial winner’s jump into the pond surrounding the 18th green.

“She’s the last person you want to have a five-shot lead,” Jones said.

Sorenstam birdied four holes on the front nine and two on the back to shoot the lowest score of the week on the Mission Hills Country Club course. She did it without getting into any serious difficulty on a day when light breezes and warm temperatures offered ideal scoring conditions.

There’s 18 holes left to play, but that figures to be a mere formality. Sorenstam doesn’t give up leads easily, and no one in the field has shown they have the game to challenge her.

Jones, in her final year on tour, birdied the final hole to shoot 71 and inch a shot closer, but the only other players within a sniff of the lead were Mi-Hyun Kim and Cristie Kerr at seven shots back.

About the only excitement left on the final day may be how artistically Sorenstam takes the traditional winner’s jump into the pond surrounding the 18th green. She’s likely to do well at that too, since she’s had practice by winning here twice in the last four years.

Sorenstam has played better every day, with an opening 70 followed by a second-round 69.