Kane regains lead with 65

When the wind kicked up and the greens slowed after two days of near-record scoring, Canada's Lorie Kane was back in her element.

Kane, blown away with the rest of the field by Meg Mallon's 60 on Friday, shot a 5-under 65 Saturday to regain the lead in the LPGA Tour's season-opening Welch's-Fry's Championship.

The resident of Prince Edward Island birdied two of the last six holes - a stretch in which Mallon had three bogeys - to turn things around.

"It was just another really steady round of golf," said Kane, who has taken two of her four career titles in playoffs. "I didn't do anything crazy."

Kane also led the first round after shooting a career-low 61, but trailed Mallon by three strokes going into the third. A crucial swing occurred when Mallon, who had reached 19 under by playing 41 consecutive holes without a bogey, had back-to-back bogeys on the 13th and 14th holes.

Kane, playing half a fairway ahead, took the lead when she holed a 4-foot birdie putt on No. 15 and parred out for a 54-hole total of 18-under 192.

She ignored the leaderboards and her four-shot deficit by design after the turn.

"I sometimes get in the mind-set that I'm in a skins game and you have to make birdies," Kane said. "I have to make a lot of them here. So that kind of was the mindset - just get it to the barn and see what can happen tomorrow."

Mallon blamed herself even though the first blast of a fast-moving weather front shortened her approach shots on Nos. 13 and 14.

"It went from being a 3- to 5-yard wind to, 'Is this a 15- or a 20-yard wind?'" Mallon said. "But it's up to me to get it up and down from there."

Christina Kim shot a 62 on her 19th birthday and claimed sole possession of second at 193.

"After the first round, looking at the scores, I thought, 'Hey, I can do this,'" said Kim, whose 62 in the 2001 U.S. Girls' Junior Championship set a record for a USGA competition. "I can go low because I have the capabilities."

Mallon and playing partner Wendy Doolan will begin the final round two shots off the pace. Doolan carded a 67 to Mallon's 70.

Brandie Burton, who won this event in 1992, shot a 66 to get into a three-woman group at 196. Grace Park was in contention for the lead through 13 holes, but bogeyed two of the next three to finish with a 68 and the tie with Burton and Young Kim (69).

The erratic gusts helped toughen the 6,176-yard Dell Urich layout, in use by the LPGA for the first time. The cut at 3 under Friday was a record for the tournament, played for 22 years at an adjacent course in Randolph Park.

Park and Kane birdied the sixth hole and Young Kim eagled it. That set up a two-hole stretch with the leader at 17 under and Park, Kim and Kane two shots back.

But Kim bogeyed No. 9, and Mallon birdied it minutes later to restore the three-shot lead she took into the round.

After the turn, Mallon tried to charge with her pursuers. She holed a 7-foot birdie putt on No. 10 to get to 19 under and just missed another birdie on the next hole when her 10-footer rolled past the rim.

But, after one more par, the course caught up.

Mallon's 8-iron third shot on No. 13, a 502-yard par-5, dropped short of the green, leaving a 15-yard chip. The ball stopped 8 feet from the hole, but she two-putted.

On the next hole, Mallon blasted a 7-iron over the green, left herself a 12-foot putt for par after another chip and again two-putted.

Her last bogey came on No. 16.

Christina Kim, who matched Beth Bauer's 62 for the best score of the day, dropped approach shots close to the flag throughout the round. She two-putted for birdie twice, had one 8-footer and made the other five birdies with putts of 4 feet or less.

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