San Francisco, CA (SportsNetwork.com) - Stacy Lewis carded her second straight 3-under 69 on Friday to claim a 1-stroke lead at the inaugural Swinging Skirts LPGA Classic.
Lewis, who collected three wins last season, finished 36 holes at Lake Merced Golf Club at 6-under-par 69.
"We knew it was going to be a long day. That's the way I took it, one shot at a time and tried to get the ball in the hole," Lewis said about her second round, which saw play halted for an hour and 20 minutes due to heavy rain. "That's what I tried to do. Get it in the hole as fast as I could. Fortunately I was able to do that and make a couple putts."
First-round leader Karine Icher tripped to a 1-over 73 in the rainy conditions to fall into a tie with Lydia Ko (71) for second place at 5-under 139.
World No. 1 Inbee Park tied the low round of the day with a 4-under 68 to jump into a share of fourth with Ilhee Lee (73) and Mika Miyazato (69) at 3-under 141, while second-ranked Suzann Pettersen (72) is among nine players tied for seventh at minus-2.
Pettersen was joined by P.K. Kongkraphan (68), Catriona Matthew (69), Haeji Kang (70), Brittany Lang (71), Paola Moreno (71), Carlota Ciganda (72), Hyo Joo Kim (73) and Jenny Shin (74).
Lewis opened her round with six straight pars before rolling in back-to-back birdies at the 16th and 17th to move to 5-under.
A bogey at the first dropped her back to minus-4, but she quickly got that shot back with a birdie at the second. After again trading a bogey at the fourth with a birdie at the sixth, the third-ranked player in the world birdied the eighth to reach 6-under and parred the last to finish there.
Icher, meanwhile, followed five straight opening pars with a bogey at the sixth to fall to 5-under.
She dropped another shot at the 10th, but later got that stroke back with a birdie at the 14th and parred her final four holes to finish at 5-under.
"It's a tough golf course. You can be quick in trouble, or if you're playing well, like yesterday I did think it goes pretty well -- but today with the wind and the rain it's definitely a tough day," said Icher.
Ko started on the back nine and traded a bogey at the 13th with a bogey at the 17th to make the turn at 4-under.
After tripping to a bogey at the second, she rolled in birdies at the fourth, fifth and seventh around a bogey at the sixth to move to 5-under and earn her share of second place.
NOTES: The first round was completed Friday after being suspended due to darkness on Thursday ... Lewis has six top-10 finishes in seven starts this season ... Lewis has converted four of her eight second-round leads into victories ... The cut line fell at 5-over-par 149, with 82 players advancing to the weekend.
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