Kung & Matthew share lead

Candie Kung didn't want to use the word most golfers dread. But she had no other way to describe the shot that cost her the sole lead in the Takefuji Classic.

"I just shanked it," Kung said.

Indeed she did, and it couldn't have come at a worse time.

Kung had gotten through a rain delay and had a lob wedge to the final green to set up a possible birdie that would have given her a two-shot lead over Catriona Matthew.

But she shanked the wedge and hit another one thin before finally salvaging a final bogey Friday that dropped her into a tie going into Saturday's final round of the 54-hole event.

It was the second day in a row Kung had trouble finishing. In Thursday's first round, she double bogeyed her final hole to drop out of the lead.

"I played well all day. I don't know what happened on that third shot," Kung said.

Kung does know one thing - she's going to have to get better at finishing if she has any hope of winning her first LPGA tournament in the final round.

"I'm just going to go out there and have fun," she said. "We'll see what happens."

Kung and Matthew were 10 under, a shot ahead of Christie Kerr. Annika Sorenstam was five shots back after a 5-under 67.

Kung had to make a fine up-and-down from next to a greenside bunker for a finishing bogey. It came after a 92-minute storm delay that interrupted 17 holes of bogey-free golf for Kung, who shot her second straight 67.

She stood on the final tee for about 20 minutes waiting to hit, then put her drive into the left rough on the 460-yard par-5 and had to lay up before her shank.

"If we didn't have that suspension, I probably would have hit it in the fairway because I was hitting it real well," Kung said.

Sorenstam gave herself some hope for the final round with a bogey-free round that put her five shots back. Sorenstam, who won 11 times on the LPGA Tour last year, will not play in the final group in the last round for the first time in four events this year.

Sorenstam began her round making pars the first four holes before making birdies on five of the next nine holes to move closer to the leaders.

It left her feeling a lot better than she was Thursday, when she had to birdie the final hole to shoot even par in an erratic round.

"I'm happy," Sorenstam said. "Yesterday, I didn't hit a lot of fairways and I missed a lot of greens. Today, it was a lot more solid."

Sorenstam tends to struggle in the wind, and it was less windy in the second round, although play was suspended in the afternoon when a thunderstorm moved through the area.

"It's tough when it's so windy. In my particular case, I try to hit the ball harder and harder," she said. "It's like I lose my tempo. Today on the range, I just wanted to find my tempo and I think on the first few holes my rhythm was so much better."

Matthew, like Kung, had some problems on the final hole, but hers were on the green.

Matthew hit a drive measured at 328 yards on the 18th hole, then reached the green of the par-5 with a 6-iron. But she three-putted for par.

Matthew has won once on the LPGA Tour, while Kung, a second-year player, has yet to win.

"Certainly to be in the lead or close to it, I am looking forward to it," Matthew said.

Laura Diaz, who shared the lead after a first round 66, shot a 71 that included a double bogey on the 18th hole - her ninth of the day.

Diaz left herself 71 yards for her third shot on the par-5 hole and was trying to get it close to the hole for a birdie. Instead, she hit it in the water fronting the green and made a seven.

"I was trying to get it close and I got it close to the wall," Diaz said.

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