Austin Ernst held a one-stroke lead over Yani Tseng of Taiwan when darkness halted play with the leaders on the fifth green in round three of the rain-delayed Yokohama Tire LPGA Classic on the Senator Course at Capitol Hill in Prattville, Ala.
Ernst, whose only LPGA Tour victory came last year in the Portland Classic, tied for the lead at 10-under with a birdie on the second hole and Tseng, the 36-hole leader, fell back with a bogey on the fourth.
“It’s going to be a marathon,” Ernst said of playing a little over 31 holes on Sunday. “There’s a lot of golf left. It will basically just be get as many birdies as I can. I know the scores are still going to be low. It’s just going to be more continuous golf than usual.
“We’ll finish that third round up and then probably get a little lunch break and go right back out there. It will be good, kind of be able to get into a little bit of a groove early, hopefully, and then just kind of carry that on throughout the day.”
Tseng, the former world No. l who has won 15 times on the PGA Tour including five majors, took the lead with a 64 in the third round.
Sei Young Kim of South Korea was 3-under for the third round after seven holes and was two shots back in a tie for third with Tiffany Joh of San Diego and UCLA, who was 1-under after five; Sydnee Michaels of Temecula, who also was 1-under after five; Lexi Thompson, who was even after four, and Julieta Granada of Paraguay, who was even after five.
Sadena Parks was 3-under after seven holes and was three shots back in a tie for seventh with Cydney Clanton, who was 2-under after seven.
Ryan O’Toole of San Clemente and UCLA was even after five and another stroke back in a tie for 10th, while third-ranked Stacy Lewis was 1-over through six and five shots down in a tie for 15th, and 17-year-old Brooke Henderson was another shot back in a tie for 18th after playing the first 10 holes in 1-under.
