Williamsburg, VA – Cristie Kerr fired her second 5-under 66 of the week on Saturday to move into the lead after three rounds of the Kingsmill Championship.
Kerr, who has won at this course twice before, ended 54 holes at 10-under-par 203. She will go for her 16th LPGA Tour title on Sunday.
Suzann Pettersen (68) and Stacy Lewis (69), the fifth and second ranked players in the world, moved into second place at minus-8. Angela Stanford managed a 2-under 70 to finish three rounds at 7-under 206.
Ilhee Lee, who was one of seven players that had at least a piece of the lead during the round, posted her third straight 69. She is alone in fifth place at minus-6 at Kingsmill Resort & Spa.
Ariya Jutanugarn led after the first two rounds, but struggled to a 2-over 73 and fell into a share of sixth at 5-under 208. She was joined there by Lizette Salas, whose 65 was the low round of the week.
Kerr, who won here in 2005 and 2009, tripped to a bogey at the second, but fought back with birdies at three and four. She moved within one of the lead with a birdie on the seventh.
Lee, in the group ahead of Kerr, eagled the seventh to jump to minus-8. Lee then birdied the eighth, but dropped five strokes in the first four holes around the turn to slide to minus-4.
Kerr rolled in a 7-foot birdie putt at No. 10 to join Lee atop the leaderboard at 8-under. Kerr followed with an 18-footer for birdie at 13 and a 3-foot birdie putt at 15th.
The 15-time LPGA Tour winner closed with three pars in a row to lead by two heading to the final round.
"I've always loved it here. I played a great round today," Kerr stated. "Saturday is definitely moving day, but I've got to look at it like I'm two back tomorrow, because that's when I play my best golf. So I'm looking at it as moving day tomorrow as well because if you're not moving, somebody else is going to. That's kind of like where my head is right now."
Pettersen birdied the second, before parring the next three holes. She dropped in back-to-back birdie efforts at six and seven to get to 8-under.
At the ninth, Pettersen faltered to a bogey to dip one behind Kerr and Sandra Gal. Pettersen erased that mistake with a birdie putt from just inside 20 feet out at the 11th. She closed with seven consecutive pars to end there.
"Again, very steady round, hitting a lot of good shots. It's not the easiest out there, that being said, and some of these pins are a little bit trickier to get to probably than what it looks like on TV," Pettersen stated. "But I played good golf, we both played good, gave ourselves a lot of chances. I made a few more than Stacy."
Lewis had a bogey and a birdie on the front nine. She ran off seven straight pars from the eighth before making birdie at 15. Lewis followed with a kick-in birdie at 16 to get within two, and she ended there with pars on the last two holes.
"My round was pretty boring and pretty frustrating. I started to get into a better rhythm on the back nine, started to hit a little better and again just didn't make any putts," said Lewis. "So it was nice I hung in there and made a few birdies at the end to keep myself in it for tomorrow, give myself a chance and that's really all you wanted to do today. I know that my best round is still out there and I think that's what's encouraging going into tomorrow."
NOTES: Kerr led after three rounds when she won here in 2005 and 2009 ... Six of the top-12 players in the world are in the top 15 on the leaderboard entering the final round ... Defending champion Jiyai Shin stumbled to a 75 and is well off the pace at plus-4.
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