Veronica Felibert celebrated her 27th birthday by taking a four-shot lead at the NW Arkansas Championship.
The LPGA rookie from Venezuela carded a second-round five-under-par 66 at Pinnacle Country Club to take her total to 11 under par and open up a sizeable advantage over the rest of the field with one round left to play.
Felibert continued her surprising run by carding a bogey-free round on Saturday, capped by a par-saving putt at the 18th.
"There are feelings that I cannot express right now, because it is what I have dreamt all my life for," Felibert said. "It's pretty cool to see my name up there, but at the same time I have been trying to not think too much about it and just play one shot at a time and enjoy it.
"I'm having a lot of fun."
Felibert is an unknown qualifier who has never finished higher than fifth in any professional tournament. She has earned only $2,489 this season on the LPGA Tour, but has a great chance of picking up the $300,000 first-place prize on Sunday.
"I'm calm. I'm relaxed, yes," Felibert said. "I'm nervous and excited because it's something different, a position that I haven't been in lately, so it's pretty cool. But in general I'm pretty calm."
Mika Miyazato (65) and Inbee Park (68) were tied for second on seven under, while Katie Futcher (67), Brittany Lang (63 - the best round of the week), Ai Miyazato (68), Shanshan Feng (70) and Ryann Toole (68) are tied for fourth a further shot back.
Top-ranked Yani Tseng, the two-time defending champion, followed her opening 73 with a 74 to miss her first cut in over a year. Her 74 was her sixth straight round over par entering next week's U.S. Women's Open.
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