Mobile, AL – Stacy Lewis posted her second straight five- under 67 on Saturday to extend her lead to two strokes after 54 holes of the Mobile Bay LPGA Classic.
Lewis finished three rounds at 14-under-par 202. She will go for her second LPGA Tour title on Sunday.
Brittany Lincicome also posted a 67 to move into second place at minus-12. Lincicome, like Lewis, is a former winner of the Kraft Nabisco. Lincicome will go for her sixth LPGA Tour win in the final round.
Karine Icher shot four-under 68 to move into third at 11-under-par 205. Sun Young Yoo (69), this year's Kraft Nabisco winner, and Lindsey Wright (70) share fourth at minus-10.
Karrie Webb fired a 64 to match the course record on the Crossing Course at Magnolia Grove, which is part of the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail. She jumped 50 places into a tie for sixth at nine-under-par 207.
Webb was joined there by Natalie Gulbis (68), Pornanong Phatlum (66), Lexi Thompson (66), Haeji Kang (69) and Christel Boeljon (68).
Right out of the gate, reigning U.S. Women's Open champion So Yeon Ryu birdied the first to match Lewis in the lead. Ryu later bogeyed the third and sixth to fall out of contention.
Lewis, last year's Kraft Nabisco winner, fell one back with a bogey on the second, but erased that mistake with a birdie on the third. She parred the next three holes, and fell one behind Lincicome, who birdied three in a row from the fourth to jump to 10-under.
At the par-four seventh, Lewis regained a piece of the lead with a three-foot birdie putt. She joined Wright, who birdied Nos. 5 and 7, at minus-10. Wright played the remaining 11 holes at even-par with one birdie and one bogey.
Lincicome rolled in a six-footer for birdie on the ninth to join Wright in the lead as Lewis stumbled to another bogey on No. 8. Lewis parred the next three before catching fire.
Lewis had fallen three behind Lincicome, who moved to 12-under with birdies at 12 and 13. Lewis also birdied those two holes to get within one.
After a par on the 14th, Lewis birdied the 15th to match Lincicome at minus-12. Lewis followed with birdies on 16 and 17 to move two clear of the field. She parred the last to end there.
"I think I was just really impatient and kind of tried to force things, tried to force some putts in and my speed wasn't very good," Lewis said of her front nine. "On 12, I was in the fairway bunker and hit a really good shot to about eight feet, and that just seemed to really calm me down.
"I made birdie there and it just calmed me down and I hit some really great shots coming in, and then to two putt the way I did on 18 was just an added bonus, I guess."
Lincicome could not keep pace down the stretch as she parred the final five holes.
"I'm hitting it really far right now and this is a long hitter's golf course, so even as long as it is, I still seemed to have a lot of wedges in my hand," Lincicome said. "So today with my wedge play, they were inside three feet all day and kind of tap-ins. Obviously they didn't feel like tap-ins when you have to make a three-footer, but I felt like my wedge game was really, really good and my putting was working very well."
NOTES: Lewis holds the 54-hole lead for the second time in her career. The other time she finished tied for third at the 2008 U.S. Women's Open...Defending champion Maria Hjorth struggled to a four-over 76 to slide into a share of 72nd at plus-three.
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