South Korea's Kim Sei-young dropped two shots on her last three holes and was replaced at the top of the leaderboard by compatriot Ji Eun-hee in the third round of the LPGA Tour's Founders Cup.
Ji shot a bogey-free 65 to move to 18 under at the Wildfire Golf Club in Phoenix, Arizona, one shot ahead of 2015 rookie of the year Kim (70) and American Stacy Lewis, who carded a 64 on Saturday.
World No.1 Lydia Ko and Spaniard Carlota Ciganda also shot 64 to move into contention at 15 under.
Kim drained a 25-foot eagle putt from the front fringe of the par-4 13 to move two shots clear but failed to pick up a birdie at the straightforward par-5 15th and then made bogeys at 16 and 17 to close with a two-under-par 70.
Ji, who has won twice on the LPGA Tour, birdied three of her final five holes for an 18-under 198 total and has had just one bogey through 54 holes.
"My putting was really good," she said.
"Actually, my iron was really good too, because I was really struggling with my irons the last couple of weeks, but it's getting better this week."
New Zealander Ko said she was surprised by the low scores.
"I thought with the rough being longer this year, the scores would not be as low as years before, but apparently not," Ko said.
"I knew if I wanted to catch up or give myself an opportunity on Sunday I needed to go pretty low."
Minjee Lee is the best-placed Australian at 12 under in a tie for 17th.
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