Two-time defending champion Lydia Ko is six shots off the lead at the end of the penultimate day at the latest LPGA Tour event in San Francisco.
Lydia Ko Photo: PHOTOSPORT
The New Zealand golfer, and world number one posted a 1-over par, 73 today to finish at 4-under par tied for eighth.
Ko started the day four shots off the lead in a tie for fifth, but was never able to make up ground, in a round that included three bogeys and two birdies.
Japan's Haru Nomura remained in control of her game to post a third round 1-under par, 71 to maintain her lead at the Swinging Skirts LPGA Classic.
She holds a three-stroke lead ahead of South Africa's Lee-Anne Pace and South Korea's Na Yeon Choi at 7-under par. Nomura, Pace and Choi were the only players who started the day in the top-10 to card rounds under par.
Ko, who will turn 19 tomorrow, said her game was pretty average today.
"But I felt like chipping, short game wise it was good, but I wasn't making the putts that needed to go in for birdie or those crucial par saves, so I think that was the difference from today to yesterday," Ko said.
A win would make Nomura the third two-time winner in 2016, joining Ha Na Jang and Lydia Ko as the only other players to accomplish the feat so far this season.