China's Feng Shanshan takes lead at home
Beijing (AFP) - China's Feng Shanshan fired a second consecutive round of nine-under-par 64 at the inaugural Reignwood LPGA Classic in Beijing on Saturday, to take a one shot lead in front of an ecstatic home crowd.
Feng leads the US's Stacy Lewis by one shot after the pair battled each other through the third round, exchanging a total of 17 birdies. South Korea's Park In-Bee is five shots off the lead in third.
The $1.8 million tournament -- the LPGA's first in China -- is being played at the par-73 Jack Nicklaus-designed Reignwood Pine Valley Golf Club near Beijing.
Feng, 24, said she was "a little nervous" at the start of the day and did not get the start she wanted in what were foggy conditions, but then began to sink some birdies.
"And then I saw Stacy was making a lot of birdies, too, so I was like I need to catch up with her," she said, according to a press release from the organisers.
While second-round leader Jessica Korda of the US slipped to sixth overall with a round of 76, Feng and Lewis pulled ahead, with the Chinese player closing out with three straight birdies.
Lewis stayed in touch by chipping in from the deep rough on the seventeenth and sinking a five-footer on the eighteenth.
"If I don't chip in there and don't make birdie on 18 I'm three shots behind going into tomorrow. So those two shots are huge for the momentum of leading into tomorrow," she said.
