The Lotte Championship will shape the rest of Stephanie Kono’s season.

The LPGA is reshuffling its priority list in the coming weeks and Kono’s performance here at Ko Olina will determine how many more LPGA Tour events the Punahou graduate will get into. There are 144 golfers in each tournament and Kono started the year at 161 on the priority list. Money earned is factored into the reshuffle, and this is the second cut Kono made in three tournaments this year.

“I knew coming into this event that the reshuffle was after this,” said Kono, who is tied for 61st at 3-over 219 heading into today’s final round. “I wanted to play well obviously. I had a month in between my last tournament in Australia and this tournament. Knowing I had conditional status at the beginning of the year, that was really my focus, to get off to a good start.”

Kono was the only local golfer to make the cut. The Punahou graduate bogeyed two of her last three holes to finish Friday’s round at 4-over 76. She had five bogeys in the third round, the most of any 18 this week.

“I made the cut in Australia and made the cut here, which is nice, but today I didn’t have the best day,” Kono said. “There’s 18 more holes, so I’ll see what happens.”

Kono started the day steady, much like how she’s played the entire tournament. She parred six straight holes on the front nine before bogeying the ninth. She made the turn at 1 over.

“I bogeyed nine and I think that was my first three-putt of the tournament,” Kono said. “You know, I was bummed I didn’t make that par putt, but I still felt really good.”

Kono bogeyed the 11th hole and had her only birdie of the round on 13. She bogeyed 16 after missing a par putt. On 17, she missed a birdie putt and settled for par. She hit into the sand on 18 and finished the afternoon with a bogey.

“I hit the ball not so great on the back nine, and so I was just kind of trying to keep it together,” Kono said. “But, you know, hopefully I’ll work things out on the range and it’ll get a little bit better tomorrow.”

Kono said she will need to tighten her game for today’s final round. A strong showing could yield her biggest tour payout. She earned $2,540 after tying for 75th at the Australian Open in February.

“I hit a couple of loose shots today and I need to tighten that up,” Kono said. “I hit a lot of good putts, but they just didn’t go in today. I’m just going to trust that my feel is still there and hopefully they’ll go in tomorrow and have a good day.”

Kono said the Australian Open showed her areas she needed to work on and she spent the past month working on her game. She did a mini tour event to prepare for Lotte and flew into Honolulu a few days before the tournament. About a dozen fans have followed Kono throughout the tournament and she’s appreciative of the support from the home crowd.

“It’s awesome,” Kono said. “I mean, I didn’t have a great day, but just to be out here with some friends and family and know that so many people support me just means so much to me.”