The Albany Gazette - Fassi grabs two stroke lead at LPGA's Pelican Championship

The tournament was shortened to 54 holes because of heavy rain from Tropical Storm Nicole, which ruled out play on Thursday.

But Fassi, without a win on the tour, made the most of the morning conditions.

The 24-year-old eagled the par-5 14th hole and then added her sixth birdie of her round on the penultimate hole as she completed an impressive bogey free round at the club in Belleair, Florida.

"To put a round like this together you got to have every aspect of your game in line. I really did," she said.

"Putter was just impeccable today. Off the tee, I hit it probably good as I ever have. So it was a pretty good combination," she added.

Fassi led from a quintet of players who shot six under -- Hong Kong's Tiffany Chan, American Lexi Thompson, Spain's Carlota Ciganda, South Korean Kim Hyo-joo and german Isi Gabsa all shooting 64.

Floridian Thompson eagled the 7th with a 30 foot putt and finished her round with a birdie on the par-4 18th.

"With one round shorter, definitely want to get off to a hotter start," said Thompson.

"I was just trying to stay in the moment today. My game was in a good spot and been putting in a lot of time, hard work, so it's nice to see it pay off," she said.

Gabsa, who started on the back nine, finished her round with a streak of four straight birdies to put herself in contention for the weekend.

The German is one of the players battling for points to qualify for the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship in Naples, Florida, next week.

(A.Lehmann--BBZ)