RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. – After grinding hard with her head down Friday at the ANA Inspiration, Stacy Lewis looked up at day’s end to see she had worked her way into contention.
With birdies at two of her last three holes, Lewis shot 3-under-par 69, getting her within four shots of the lead going into the weekend.
“I wasn’t really looking at leaderboards all day, so I didn’t honestly have any idea where I stood,” Lewis said. “But I knew the course was playing hard, and I just had to keep hanging in there, and really just happy with the finish.”
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Lewis, who won the Kraft Nabisco Championship in 2011, has knocked hard on the door trying to get her first victory this year. She has two second-place finishes and a third-place finish over the last month.
With the Dinah Shore Course firming up at Mission Hills, conditions promise to remain tough this weekend.
“This golf course seems to play differently every year,” Lewis said. “The last two years you’ve had to make birdies, and then this year it’s playing hard again. I would rather have it like this where it’s grinding out pars, making sure you’re hitting it on the right side of the hole, just playing smart golf. I’d rather have it that way, just because I think it forces you to think a little bit more.”
