Stanford leads Ochoa's event by 2

Guadalajara, Mexico – Angela Stanford carded a 5-under 67 Friday to grab a 2-stroke lead after two rounds of the Lorena Ochoa Invitational.

Stanford, the HSBC Women's Champions winner, finished 36 holes at 11-under-par 133. She also won this title in 2008 and has five LPGA Tour victories in all.

Inbee Park posted a 4-under 68 and is alone in second place at minus-9. Cristie Kerr managed a 3-under 69 to finish two rounds at 8-under 136, which was good for third place.

Candie Kung, who shared the first-round lead with Stanford and Michelle Wie, carded a 1-under 71. Kung was joined in fourth place at minus-7 by Stacy Lewis (70) and So Yeon Ryu (70).

Karine Icher (71) and 2010 champion I.K. Kim (70) are tied for seventh at minus-6.

Wie (75) and women's world No. 1 Yani Tseng (71) share 12th place at 3-under 141 with two other players.

Tournament host Lorena Ochoa managed an even-par 72 and is tied for 19th at minus-1 at Guadalajara Country Club.

Stanford birdied the second to move to minus-7, then ran off four straight pars. She carded another birdie on the seventh, and followed with birdies at each of the next three holes.

That spurt gave Stanford the lead at 11-under. She posted four pars in a row from the 11th before faltering to a bogey on the par-4 15th.

Stanford erased that mistake with a birdie at 16. She parred the final two holes to finish two clear of Park.

"I got off to a better start and it was pretty solid all the way around and I didn't even realize that 15 was my first missed green," Stanford said. "So those are usually good days when you're in a rhythm and you don't realize what's going on."

After 10 straight top-nine finishes, Park has finished 15th and 17th in two of her last three starts. She was on fire early, but cooled off later in the round.

Park dropped in back-to-back birdie efforts to start her round. She got to minus-8 with a birdie on No. 5. Park dropped in a birdie effort at the par-3 eighth and made it two in a row with a birdie at the ninth.

Around the turn, Park ran off seven consecutive pars from the 10th. She tripped to a bogey on the 17th to slip back to minus-9, then parred the last.

"I had two different nines today. On the front nine, everything went perfect. I hit the ball great and putted real good," stated Park. "But as I turned to the back nine, I just didn't give myself enough chances for a birdie. And No. 17, I missed a short one for a bogey, but that was pretty much my only mistake today. Still very happy with the round."

NOTES: Stanford has won four of the previous 10 times she owned at least a piece of the 36-hole lead ... Ochoa is playing on the LPGA Tour for the first time since 2010 ... Defending champion Catriona Matthew managed an even-par 72 and is tied for 19th at minus-1.