RANCHO MIRAGE — Kristy McPherson keeps thinking she won't finish a round of the Kraft Nabisco Championship with the lead, and she keeps surprising herself.

For the second consecutive day, McPherson shot steady golf and ended the round with the lead in the LPGA's first major of the year. Saturday, it was a 2-under 70 that gave McPherson sole possession of the lead at 8-under 208, one shot better than veteran Cristie Kerr, who matched McPherson's 70. Brittany Lincicome also shot 70 and is alone in third at 6-under.

“I was kind of surprised that scores were not that low, and I figured if I can just hang around there, (but) did not expect myself to be in the lead after 2 under today,” McPherson said. “But I'll take it.”

In just her third year on tour and winless so far, McPherson seemed anything but flustered by leading a major championship with 18 holes to play.

“I'm sure I'll probably think about it a little bit tonight and going into tomorrow,” McPherson said. “But it's a tough leader board up there. I know that I have to play really solid golf. You've got a lot of girls that can do a lot of good things out there. So I just want to go out and try to play golf tomorrow and try to keep it simple.”

After fighting through winds gusting near 50 mph Friday, the players managed better scores Saturday but found an equally tough opponent in some difficult pin placements on the firm and fast greens of the Dinah Shore Tournament Course at Mission Hills Country Club.

“The pin on the fifth hole, the par-3, was a little sketchy. It was kind of on a slope, three or four (yards) over the bunker,” said Kerr, the only major championship winner among the top six players on the leader board. “Where they put the pins today, I had probably six or seven 20-footers that broke anywhere from five to eight feet. I mean, it's kind of hard to be aggressive and make those putts, especially when they are going into you and they are really fast.”

Early in Saturday's round no one was making any putts, it seemed. McPherson and second-round co-leader Christina Kim each shot 1-over 37 on the front nine, while Kerr and Lincicome shot 36.

McPherson's breakout came when she made the turn to the back nine. She hit a wedge to 10 feet and made the putt for a birdie at the 10th hole, then pitched to 10 feet on the par-5 11th and made another birdie. On the 12th, her 9-iron approach set up another four-foot birdie putt to push her to 8-under and a two-shot lead over Kerr.

McPherson said she was playing well coming into the Kraft tournament and that she could hit fairways and greens, one of the biggest demands of major championship golf.

“I was more excited knowing what I'm doing with the golf ball right now than anything else really,” McPherson said.

Kerr's round included some strange occurrences on the back nine. A badly hit tee shot on the par-3 14th hit a rock rather than going into a lake. The ball nearly kicked into the hole, and Kerr walked away with a par. On the 17th, she said she wanted to hit the center of the green, but instead she pulled the shot and it rolled up to just inches from the cup to set up an easy birdie.

Kerr said the greens make the Shore Course play tough enough without 4- or 5-inch rough.

“I said it from the beginning of the week. It's got enough rough, definitely around the greens,” Kerr said. “A little spotty sometimes when you are off the fairways, you get lucky but the course does not really need a lot of rough, or even necessarily that much wind to play tough. I mean, the greens are very fast.”

Kerr and McPherson will be in today's final threesome with Lincicome, one of McPherson's best friends on tour. Lincicome's 70 on Saturday was more adventurous than the rounds by Kerr or McPherson, needing several long par-saving putts and birdie putts to keep pace with the leaders.

“It's amazing. It's really cool to see my name up there,” said Lincicome, a two-time tour winner but winless since 2007. “It's been so long since I've been in contention, and to be a major and to be on the top of a leader board is a pretty cool feeling.”

Lincicome and Kerr are the players with the tour victories, but they will be chasing McPherson, who didn't think her lead would hold up Friday and didn't think she could keep the lead with a 70 on Saturday. Asked if she expected to be in the lead after the final round, McPherson just smiled.

“I sure hope so,” she said. “I sure hope so.”