PHOENIX – Ai Miyazato was in control in the LPGA Founders Cup on Saturday, ending up with a bigger cushion than she expected after Stacy Lewis was penalized two strokes after the round.
Making three birdies in a four-hole stretch on the back nine and saving par with a 12-foot putt on the finishing hole, Miyazato shot her second straight 5-under 67 after opening with a tournament-record 64. At 19-under 197, the diminutive Japanese star had a four-stroke lead over Stacy Lewis and Jee Young Lee.
“It was a pretty solid round,” said Miyazato, seeking her 10th LPGA Tour victory. “I didn’t hit any bad shots and I had a few chances, a few birdie chances out there, but I couldn’t make it. But still toward the end I started to feel more comfortable with my putting.”
Lewis was penalized when it was ruled that caddie Travis Wilson tested the sand before Lewis played out of a bunker on the par-4 16th. That turned a 66 into a 68 and doubled her deficit.
“I didn’t see Travis do anything when we were playing. I wasn’t looking at his feet, obviously,” Lewis said. “So, we looked at the video and you have to slow it down, zoom in on his foot. He walks into the bunker, he kind of pushes, he kind of bounces his knees a little bit and his foot turns.
“And that was kind of the big indicators that his foot turned and you could kind of hear the sand crunch a little bit. So, that’s deemed to be testing the sand.”
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