By Jeremy Harness

SAN FRANCISCO – Fifty-four-hole leader Brooke Henderson and Morgan Pressel will be playing in the final group on Sunday at the Swinging Skirts LPGA Classic, and the outcome could have big implications for either player.

For Pressel, a victory would be her first on the LPGA Tour in seven years, while a win for Henderson would likely mean a complete change in her playing status altogether. To make things more interesting, the two are only separated by a single stroke.

That’s because Pressel made a big move on Saturday, shooting a five-under 67 to catapult herself into a tie for second place.

Heading into the 13th hole, she was one under par for her day with two birdies against one bogey. She then caught fire, racking up four birdies in the final six holes, including a tap-in at the par-5 18th to wrap up the lowest round of the day.

Pressel’s round was especially impressive due to the fact that the conditions were very windy and severely limited scoring opportunities otherwise. In fact, the second-lowest round on Saturday was turned in by Min Seo Kwak, whose three-under 69 was aided by a hole-out eagle at the ninth.

“I wouldn’t say it was the absolute very best I could’ve played, but I certainly kept control of the golf ball in the wind,” said Pressel, who finished third in the ANA Inspiration three weeks ago and one shot out of a playoff. “I was very, very solid with the putter today as well.”

Playing two groups behind Pressel, Kwak also birdied the 18th to move into a second-place tie and will also play in the final grouping on Sunday.

Meanwhile, after playing with a nice cushion for most of the past two days, Henderson came back to the rest of the group. She bogeyed each of the last two holes, as her once-sizable lead was cut down to just one heading into the final day.

“If someone told me that I would be leading after three rounds, I would have taken it,” said Henderson, the 17-year-old who just graduated high school in Canada this past December.

Henderson’s playing status, however, is a bit interesting. Although she is able to get into tournaments by qualifying on the Monday before a given event, she is currently not an official tour player and is playing on a sponsor’s exemption for the Swinging Skirts.

The way that exemption works is that a sponsor, which has to be sponsoring the event, can exempt a certain group of players so that they don’t have to go through the Monday qualifying.

The LPGA Tour technically has an age limit of 18, which currently prevents Henderson from being on the tour and forces her to either get a sponsor’s exemption or Monday qualify in order to play.

Exceptions are made to that rule, however, as in the cases of Lydia Ko, who just turned 18 on Friday and is in her second year on the tour. Lexi Thompson, who joined the tour at age 17 three years ago, is another example.

According to tour officials, exceptions are only made with a successful petition to the tour’s commissioner Michael Whan, which Henderson’s was not. Henderson, to her credit, took the high road when asked about that on Saturday.

“I mean, a rule is a rule,” she said. “Everything happens for a reason. It just wasn’t my time, and it wasn’t meant to be.

“I respect the decision by the commissioner, and I respect everybody that had a say in it. But I’m hoping to play out here on the LPGA someday, and hopefully sooner than later.”

A Henderson victory come Sunday can completely change that, however. She can re-petition at any time, and seeing her hoist the trophy after 72 holes would logically enter Whan’s thought process if he receives another petition.

That is, if she has to enter one at all.

Meanwhile, Ko shot a one-under 71 on Saturday and is currently three strokes behind Henderson. She had a birdie and a bogey on the front nine, and after a bogey at the 11th, she birdied two of the next three holes but could not make up any more ground.

“Obviously I would love to be closer, but it was tough out there,” Ko said. “Even when you’ve got a two-footer, you’re still thinking about it because of the wind.”

After an opening round of 68 that put her in the thick of things right off the bat, 54-year-old Los Altos native Juli Inkster has leveled off and was not able to make up any ground on Saturday.

She started the day with two straight bogeys, and it didn’t get much better after that. She had a pair of birdies, but she was also victimized by five bogeys that dropped her into a tie for 24th. Inkster will tee off at 11:17 am PST with Thompson and Chella Choi.