Minjee Lee with 66 forges a 3-way tie in the US Women's Open

LANCASTER, Pa. (AP) — One shot put two-time major champion Minjee Lee right in the mix Saturday in the U.S. Women's Open, and she surged her way to a 4-under 66 that gave her a share of the lead with Stanford alum Andrea Lee and Wichanee Meechai.

Andrea Lee overcame a few mistakes early that left her three shots behind at one point. She was bogey-free on the tougher back nine for a 67. Meechai, the only player to reach 6-under par at any point this week, twice saved par on the closing three holes for a 69.

They were at 5-under 205.

Nelly Korda and other big stars in women's golf were long gone from Lancaster Country Club. Left behind was a tremendous give-and-take among five players who remained under par.

Minjee Lee was four shots behind and going nowhere until she hit her approach to 2 feet for eagle on the par-5 seventh hole. Equally impressive was her tee shot to a scary front left pin on the notorious par-3 12th hole to 3 feet for birdie.

Her 66 matched the low score of the tournament. Former Women's British Open champion Hinako Shibuno had seven birdies Saturday for a 66 that left her only two shots behind.

The other player under par was former Women's Open champion Yuka Saso. She was within one shot of the lead until dropping two shots over the final four holes. It might have been worse except for a bold flop shot over a bunker to a tight pin on the 17th that set up a most unlikely par save. Saso shot 69.

Everyone else was over par, and Lancaster Country Club isn't the track that allows for big charges. It's more hang on for dear life, particularly in a final round at a U.S. Open.

Saturday was different, and Minjee Lee felt that might be the case.

“It's moving day, and I thought there would be quite a few opportunities for birdies,” she said. “Knowing the USGA, they put a couple of the tees up. I thought the setup was great for a Saturday. I'm really looking forward to tomorrow.”

She would know what to expect having won her second major at the U.S. Women's Open two years ago at Pine Needles when she won by four shots.

Now it's crowded at the top.

Meechai — she goes by “Jan” when playing in America — is the most unlikely contender. Her only victory in a tournament recognized by the women's world ranking was on the Taiwan LPGA nine years ago. She is No. 158 in the world ranking.

She looked impervious to the nerves of the biggest event in women's golf, even after her group (with Andrea Lee) was given a warning for slow play.

Andrea Lee, who started two shots behind, opened with a 25-foot birdie putt. Meechai followed her in from just outside 20 feet. The 31-year-old Thai also drilled an iron onto the green at the seventh to set up a two-putt birdie that put her at 6 under.

But she dropped two shots on the back nine, only to deliver a beauty with an 8-iron on the 15th, just enough right-to-left movement on her shot that it rode the slope of the green to 3 feet that put her in the lead.

That only lasted long enough for Minjee Lee to hole an 18-foot birdie putt on the short par-4 16th, after laying back off the tee with a 5-iron. And then Andrea Lee came through on the 16th with a shot into 3 feet to join them.

At stake is a $2.4 million payoff to the winner, by far the largest in women's golf. Lancaster has had huge galleries all week, just like in 2015, and the stage might feel even bigger.

Three of the contenders under par are former major champions. Andrea Lee was a decorated amateur who has one LPGA victory. Meechai might be the most honest about her chances.

She is staying in a house by herself — it was rented by a Thai player who didn't qualify — and thought the house might be haunted. “If they have a ghost in the house, I think the ghost likes me,” she said Friday.

And then she told of waking up at 3 a.m. ahead her third round. She said she had been dreaming of the U.S. Women's Open.

“I think it's in my mind, very deep in there,” she said. “I don't think I can get rid of it. I'm trying to get along with it. I hope it works.”

Saturday was still tough enough for 15-year-old Asterisk Talley, the youngest player in the field and a high school freshman playing in the third-to-last group. She shot 78 to fall out of contention, going from five shots behind to 14 shots out of the lead.

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Hinako Shibuno, of Japan, hits off the second tee during the third round of the U.S. Women's Open golf tournament at Lancaster Country Club, Saturday, June 1, 2024, in Lancaster, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

Hinako Shibuno, of Japan, hits out of the sand onto the 12th green during the third round of the U.S. Women's Open golf tournament at Lancaster Country Club, Saturday, June 1, 2024, in Lancaster, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

Hinako Shibuno, of Japan, reacts on the 15th hole during the third round of the U.S. Women's Open golf tournament at Lancaster Country Club, Saturday, June 1, 2024, in Lancaster, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

Yuka Saso, of Japan, reacts after making a chip shot on the 17th hole during the third round of the U.S. Women's Open golf tournament at Lancaster Country Club, Saturday, June 1, 2024, in Lancaster, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

Yuka Saso, of Japan, hits on the 17th hole during the third round of the U.S. Women's Open golf tournament at Lancaster Country Club, Saturday, June 1, 2024, in Lancaster, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

Andrea Lee hits off the 18th tee during the third round of the U.S. Women's Open golf tournament at Lancaster Country Club, Saturday, June 1, 2024, in Lancaster, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

Andrea Lee waves after missing a putt on the 18th green during the third round of the U.S. Women's Open golf tournament at Lancaster Country Club, Saturday, June 1, 2024, in Lancaster, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

Wichanee Meechai, of Thailand, putts on the 12th green during the third round of the U.S. Women's Open golf tournament at Lancaster Country Club, Saturday, June 1, 2024, in Lancaster, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

Wichanee Meechai, of Thailand, reacts on the 17th hole during the third round of the U.S. Women's Open golf tournament at Lancaster Country Club, Saturday, June 1, 2024, in Lancaster, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Andrea Lee, right, walks with Wichanee Meechai, of Thailand, after the two finished the day in a 3-way tie for first during the third round of the U.S. Women's Open golf tournament at Lancaster Country Club, Saturday, June 1, 2024, in Lancaster, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Minjee Lee, of Australia, reacts after birdying the 16th hole during the third round of the U.S. Women's Open golf tournament at Lancaster Country Club, Saturday, June 1, 2024, in Lancaster, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

Minjee Lee, of Australia, waits to putt on the 18th hole during the third round of the U.S. Women's Open golf tournament at Lancaster Country Club, Saturday, June 1, 2024, in Lancaster, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

BRUSSELS (AP) — Pope Francis promised Saturday to “offer all the help we can” to aid clergy sexual abuse victims, after a group of Belgian survivors told him first-hand of the trauma that had shattered their lives and left many in poverty and mental misery.

Francis’ visit to Belgium has been dominated by the abuse scandal, with King Philippe and Prime Minister Alexander De Croo both blasting the Catholic Church’s dreadful legacy of priests raping and molesting children and its decades-long cover-up of the crimes.

Francis met for more than two hours late Friday with 17 survivors who are seeking reparations from the church for the trauma they suffered and to pay for the therapy many need. They said they gave Francis a month to consider their requests, which the Vatican said Francis was studying.

“There are so many victims. There are also so many victims who are still completely broke,” survivor Koen Van Sumere told The Associated Press. “I have also been lucky enough to get a diploma and build a life for myself. But there are so many people who are completely broke and who need help and who cannot afford it and who really need urgent help now.”

Van Sumere said he was encouraged by the “positive” meeting with the pope, but was waiting to see what comes of it. The meeting itself was intense, victims said, “It was at certain moments very emotional and at certain moments it was very rough. When the pope was told things he did not agree with, he also let it be known so there was real interaction," Van Sumere said.

He said he hoped as a first step that the pope would receive the victims at the Vatican in the spring during Holy Week. “And then we can not only celebrate the resurrection of Christ but perhaps also the resurrection of all victims in Belgium,” he said.

On Saturday, during a meeting with Belgian clergy and nuns at the Koekelberg Basilica, Francis acknowledged that the abuse scandal had created “atrocious suffering and wounds,” and undermined the faith.

“There is a need for a great deal of mercy to keep us from hardening our hearts before the suffering of victims so that we can help them feel our closeness and offer all the help we can,” he said.

He said the Belgian church must learn from victims and serve them. “Indeed, one of the roots of violence stems from the abuse of power when we use the positions we have to crush or manipulate others,” he said.

Francis has met with victims in the United States, Ireland and Canada, as well as in multiple occasions at the Vatican. He has cracked down on some bishops who failed to protect their flocks by passing new church rules on investigations and punishments. But the scandal has continued to fester, and Francis' record is uneven, with several high-profile cases still pending or seemingly ignored.

Most galling to Belgians was that it took the Vatican 14 years to laicize Bruges Bishop Roger Vangheluwe, who admitted in 2010 to having abused his nephew for 13 years. Francis defrocked him in March in a move widely seen as attempting to remove a problem before his visit.

After the encounter, Francis went to the royal crypt in the Church of Our Lady to pray at the tomb of King Baudouin, best known for having refused to give a parliament-approved bill legalizing abortion his royal assent, one of his constitutional duties.

Baudouin stepped down for one day in 1990 to allow the government to pass the law, which he was required to sign, before he was reinstated as king.

Francis praised Baudouin's courage when he decided to “leave his position as king to not sign a homicidal law,” according to the Vatican summary of the private encounter, which was attended by Baudouin's nephew, King Philippe, and Queen Mathilde.

The pope then referred to a new legislative proposal to extend the legal limit for an abortion in Belgium, from 12 weeks to 18 weeks after conception. The bill failed at the last minute because parties in government negotiations considered the timing inopportune.

Francis urged Belgians to look to Baudouin’s example in preventing such a law, and added that he hoped Baudouin’s beatification cause would move ahead, the Vatican said.

With the visit, Francis waded straight into Belgian politics and dragged the royal family along with him.

The royals are bound by strict neutrality and the palace immediately issued a statement distancing itself from the visit. The statement said the “spontaneous visit, on the pope’s request, was not part of the official program” and added the king and queen were there only “out of hospitality toward the pope."

Francis started the day by having breakfast — coffee and croissants — with a group of 10 homeless people and migrants who are looked after by the St. Gilles parish of Brussels.

They sat around a table at the entrance of the parish church and told him their stories, and gave him bottles of beer that the parish makes, “La Biche de Saint-Gilles.” The proceeds of the beer sales help fund the parish’s charity works.

Francis thanked them for the beer and breakfast and told them that the church’s true wealth was in caring for the weakest.

“If we want to truly know and show the church’s beauty, we should give to one another like this, in our smallness, in our poverty, without pretexts and with much love.”

The breakfast encounter was presided over by Marie-Françoise Boveroulle, an adjunct episcopal vicar for the diocese. The position is usually filled by a priest, but Boveroulle’s appointment has been highlighted as evidence of the roles that women can and should play in the church.

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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

Pope Francis have a breakfast together with people who are experiencing homelessness and are assisted by the parish church of St. Gilles in Brussels, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope Francis have a breakfast together with people who are experiencing homelessness and are assisted by the parish church of St. Gilles in Brussels, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope Francis have a breakfast together with people who are experiencing homelessness and are assisted by the parish church of St. Gilles in Brussels, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope Francis have a breakfast together with people who are experiencing homelessness and are assisted by the parish church of St. Gilles in Brussels, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

A priest waits attends meeting of Pope Francis with bishops, deacons, and religious people in Koekelberg Basilica of the Sacred Heart, in Koekelberg, Belgium, Saturday Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Omar Havana)

Nuns attend a meeting of Pope Francis with bishops, deacons, and religious people in Koekelberg Basilica of the Sacred Heart, in Koekelberg, Belgium, Saturday Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Omar Havana)

Pope Francis arrives at a meeting with bishops, deacons, and religious people in Koekelberg Basilica of the Sacred Heart, Belgium, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Faithful gather in the Koekelberg Basilica of the Sacred Heart during the meeting of Pope Francis with bishops, deacons, and religious people, in Brussels, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope Francis attends a meeting with bishops, deacons, and religious people in Koekelberg Basilica of the Sacred Heart, in Brussels, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope Francis arrives for a meeting with bishops, deacons, and religious people in Koekelberg Basilica of the Sacred Heart, in Koekelberg, Belgium, Saturday Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Omar Havana)