Australian women’s golf has been searching for some time for a young player to come along and slip into the rather sizeable shoes left by Karrie Webb, our greatest ever female player.

The fact that Webb, at 39 and eight years on from her last major victory, remains our only golfer ranked in the top-100 of the women’s ranking reinforces that.

Tomorrow, two Australian teenagers – West Australian Minjee Lee and Victorian Su-Hyun Oh – have a chance to become the first to amateur to win the ISPS Handa Women’s Australian Open in the 40-year history of the event. The pair, both ranked in the top-10 of world amateur ranking, also just happen to be the two players widely proclaimed as the best home-grown players since Webb.

Minjee Lee smiles as a putt rolls to the hole on the 17th green. PHOTO: Getty Images

"Anyone who knows or understands golf can pinpoint Minjee and Sue Oh as our next two great Australian players,'' Golf Australia's high performance program director Brad James said at the start of the tournament. "Plus you've got the likes of Stacey Keating, but these two have really shown at a young age that they're world class.''

Lee, 17, co-leads the championship with South Korea’s Chella Choi at 13 under and will play in the last group of the final round. They have a two-stroke buffer over rookie pro, New Zealand teenager Lydia Ko, while World No.2 Suzann Pettersen is a shot further back on 10 under.

Lee, who finished runner-up at the Ladies Masters last week and is a two-time Australian Amateur champion, made easy work of a four under 68 to follow on from her rounds of 68-67. The only blight on her third round scorecard was a bogey at the par-4 13th, which was just her second bogey in 54 holes. She says the key has been to stick to the game plan.

"It's been like that since I started.  We always have a plan and how we want to hit, like where we want to hit it and where it's going to roll to and all that kind of stuff," she said.

"I'll just stick with what I've been doing all week and it will be good I guess," she added with a laugh. "It's been good so far so why change it?"

If she goes on to win this championship one of the first people, outside her family, she will thank is Karrie Webb, who has been a huge influence on Lee's game.

"She's been really great," Lee said. "I think she really inspires a lot of young golfers and she's a great role model for us."

The 2012 US Junior Girls Champion said she is really excited, but not nervous, about the final round.

" I think because once you've been in this situation once you're like, I think I can do it again, so I'm glad it's this week," she said. "

Playing alongside her will be Choi, who set the tournament alight with a 10 under 62 to grab the tournament lead more than two hours before the last groups had finished. She smashed the women’s course record set with a 64 by Sweden’s Anna Nordqvist on Friday and equalled the lowest 18-hole score relative to par for the Women’s Open, established by Lydia Ko at Royal Canberra last year.

Choi’s round was kickstarted with an eagle at the par-5 8th. There were two more birdies at the 9th and 12th holes, before losing momentum a bogey at the 13th. She then went on an incredible run of birdie-birdie-birdie-birdie-eagle to complete the round of 62, which catapulted her from a tie for 37th at the start of the day and into the lead.

Choi's 10 under 62 set a new women's course record at Victoria Golf Club. PHOTO: Getty Images

“That was really, really good hey,” Choi laughed with reporters after her round. “This is my best score.”

Choi said it would mean a lot to finally breakthrough and win on the LPGA, which is co-sanctioning the Women’s Australian Open.

“I try enjoy playing and just focus on one shot and one shot and just putting,” she said. “I think if I just always hit the green, I have a lot of birdie chance. So I just focus on just my shot, before shot and shot.”

Choi is part of the wave of South Korean female golfers that were inspired by the feats of Se Ri Pak, just like the influence Greg Norman had on the game here. When Pak won two major championships, including the US Open, in 1998 it set in motion a revolution that has seen South Korean women dominate the LPGA Tour for the past decade.

Suzann Pettersen appeared out of sorts with her game for most of the third round but she still managed to stay in touch with the leaders. PHOTO: Getty Images

Choi, 23, like so many of her compatriots, moved to the United States as a teenager in pursuit of better golf coaching and facilities to improve her game and emulate her heroine, Pak. She is yet to win on the LPGA Tour but two top-six finishes in major championships in 2013 suggests she is not far away. The confidence gained by shooting 62 will go along way to winning our national title tomorrow and emulate the feat of her friend and fellow ‘Seoul Sister’ Jiyai Shin, who won the championship last year.

The penultimate group will feature Ko and Pettersen. Ko stormed into third place with an eagle on her second last hole, courtesy of a pitch in from 100 metres. The eagle offset the bogies she made at the 10th and 12th holes earlier.

Pettersen struggled to make an impact and two bogies in the final three holes saw her back-pedalling when most players in the top-30 were shooting under par.

Interestingly, both Ko and Pettersen were the last players to leave the practice range, nearly an hour after their third rounds.

Earlier in the day, Oh jumped nearly 40 spots up the leaderboard with a six under 66 that moved her to six shots from the lead heading into the final round.

Playing in her sixth Women’s Australian Open, the 17-year-old had five birdies and a spectacular eagle at the 18th hole, where she missed the fairway right from the tee and took advantage of a lucky bounce that saw her ball avoid the deep bunkers there. She then blasted a 5-wood onto the green and holed the putt from 12-feet.

“It was a good day but I still left a few putts out there,” Oh said. “My ball-striking was good and I holed more putts than yesterday so I guess it improved, and hopefully I will do better tomorrow.

“I love this tournament and I hope I can keep it going for as long as possible.”

Su-Hyun Oh is an Open veteran having competed in six championships since she was 12. PHOTO: Getty Images

Oh, who debuted in the Open as a 12-year-old, was runner-up at the Ladies Masters last year and, along with Minjee Lee, was the Karrie Webb Series scholarship winner for 2013. That meant a trip to the United States to be mentored by the seven-time major champion.

This week she has had Mike Clayton in her corner. The former Tour player, Golf Australia columnist and course designer has been caddying for his fellow Metropolitan Golf Club member, which Oh says has really helped her.

“He’s been helping me on the greens a bit, keeping me cool and telling me to just keep hitting good shots,” Oh said.

There have been times during the past three days where Clayton looked as frustrated as his ‘boss’ as putts kept slipping by the edge of the cup.

Oh and Lee are not only Australia’s two best prospects for major championship success since Webb, they are also good friends, team-mates and are often room-mates when representing their country overseas. They have a friendly rivalry but Oh says it is good to have someone of the same age to talk to about the experiences they are sharing.

“We’re friends but we’re both very competitive,” Oh said. “On the golf course we just do our thing and its competitive. But when you’re back in the room you’re friends. It’s weird I guess.

“We talk a fair bit when we’re together. We can relate to each other and what each one is going through.”

By tomorrow evening, one might have a tale to tell … a tale of winning the Women’s Australian Open.

For the full leaderboard visit www.womensausopen.com.au