By ,
Published February 05, 2015
San Francisco, CA (SportsNetwork.com) - Stacy Lewis carded a 4-under 68 on Saturday to hold on to her 1-stroke lead at the inaugural Swinging Skirts LPGA Classic.
Lewis, who collected three wins last season, finished 54 holes at Lake Merced Golf Club at 10-under-par 206. She will try for her ninth career LPGA Tour victory on Sunday.
"The game plan is the same. It's just trying to hit good shots and make as many putts as possible," Lewis said about her approach for the final round.
Lydia Ko also shot 68 during her third round to remain in second place at 9- under, while Jenny Shin (68) is alone in third at minus-6 and Hee Young Park (68) owns fourth at 5-under 211.
Shanshan Feng (68), P.K. Kongkraphan (70) and Karine Icher (73) share fifth at 4-under.
Lewis entered the third round with a 1-stroke lead over Ko and Icher, but Icher quickly fell behind with a bogey at the second.
Kongkraphan then briefly met Ko at 5-under with three birdies in her first four holes, but she could also not hang on and bogeyed the fifth to fall off the pace as Ko and Lewis traded pars over their first four holes.
Ko was the first to snap the streak with a birdie at the fifth to join Lewis atop the leaderboard, and made it two gains in a row at the sixth to claim the outright lead at minus-7.
After the duo matched pars over the next four holes, Ko tripped to a bogey at the 11th to fall back into a tie for the lead with Lewis.
Ko bounced right back with a lengthy birdie at the 12th to move back to 7- under, but Lewis also birdied the hole to end her streak of 11 straight pars.
The duo again traded birdies at the par-3 15th as Ko chipped in after missing the green, while Lewis stuck her tee shot to within five feet and converted her birdie effort to also reach minus-8.
Lewis and Ko converted another pair of birdies at the 16th to remain tied, but this time it was Ko who rolled in a short putt as Lewis needed to curl in a left-to-right bending putt from beyond 20 feet.
Lewis added her third straight birdie at the 17th to reach 10-under, and Ko was not able to answer this time to fall into second place.
They both 2-putted for par at the par-5 18th to leave Lewis with a 1-stroke lead heading into the final round.
"It was fun to watch," Lewis said about playing along with the 17-year-old Ko. "She got going there early making some birdies and I just felt like I needed to answer."
NOTES: Lewis has six top-10 finishes in seven starts this season ... Ko is trying for her first win as a professional. She won the CN Canadian Open in 2012 and 2013 as an amateur.
https://www.foxnews.com/sports/lewis-remains-on-top-in-san-francisco