If Kono, 13, can keep her meticulous game from a meltdown today at Mid-Pacific Country Club, she will capture the Hawai'i women's golf grand slam before she begins eighth grade.

Two years ago, at age 11, she became the youngest match play champion. Three months ago, she went wire-to-wire to win the Jennie K. Wilson Invitational at Mid-Pac.

Yesterday, she put a down payment on the final leg with a wondrous round that began with three birdies. "It's weird," Kono said, "but if you make the first putt it seems like the rest you can make."

Her game actually got better as the wind blew harder. She parred the next seven holes, birdied the 11th from 5 feet and the 12th from 20. Her only hiccup came on the next hole — a bogey induced by a drive into the trees.

After four more routine two-putt pars, she launched a perfect drive on the last hole and pitched to two feet for her sixth birdie and a two-day total of 5-under 139.

Rachel Kyono tied the 54-hole tournament record last year at 1-over 217.

She is now 11 back at 73—150.

"All you can do is go out and have fun," said Kyono, whose Pepperdine team finished second at this year's NCAA Championship. "Not much you can do to make that gap smaller. ... Stephanie just has to go out and do the same thing she's been doing."

Kyono is tied for third with Lehua Wise (72), about to begin her freshman year at New Mexico State, and Mari Chun, a Kamehameha junior who shot 69 yesterday — her first sub-70 score.

Maui's Desiree Ting, 25, shared the lead with Kono after the first round. Ting was even par and five back after 12 holes yesterday, but played the final six holes in 5-over. She is alone in second at 77—149.

The 67 was the low round of Kono's career, with an asterisk that speaks to her precociousness: At Junior Worlds last year, she shot 8-under 54 during a practice round from the shortened pre-teen tees.

Kono finished second here last year when her putting couldn't keep up with her tee-to-green game. Kevin Ralbovsky, her coach and caddy, says Kono routinely hits 15 or 16 greens in regulation. The difference between 72 or 73 and what she did yesterday lies in her putting.

"We've been waiting for this round," Ralbovsky said. "For her putting to come around."

Kono constructed her double-digit advantage with a round that looked effortless. Then moved on.

"You can't win unless you have a good putting day," she said. "That's what I need tomorrow. This feels good, but I still have to play good tomorrow."

She clearly knows how to close. She took Ting out of the 2001 match play final with an ace on a par-4. Two years, 25 pounds and three inches later, she took a two-shot advantage into the final round of the Jennie K. and won by four.

Kono remembers going into that round wanting to "make a lot of birdies." She didn't need them. "As I played on it was clear that whoever made the most pars would win," she recalled. "So I just tried to make as many pars as I could."

Pars should be good enough today.

• McLachlin 13th: Honolulu's Parker McLachlin shot a second-round 69 yesterday and pulled into a tie for 13th halfway through the Pacific Coast Amateur Championship at West Vancouver, Canada.