Overnight leader Chun In Gee doubled her advantage to two strokes after a second-round 66 lifted her to 13 under at the Evian Championship in France.
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Ko had six bogeys and just two birdies to be four over par for the round at Evian-les-Bains near the shores of Lake Geneva.
South Koreans In Gee Chun and Sung Hyun Park shot 8-under 63s to share the first-round lead.
The final major championship of the golfing calendar begins on Thursday with the Evian Championship, which finds two of the brightest stars in the women’s game at the head of the list of contenders.
Second-ranked Ariya Jutanugarn of Thailand recovered from her first-round 73 to make a consistent 67 featuring four birdies.
China’s Shanshan Feng, who placed third here previous year, will be in confident mood after her bronze medal at the Rio Olympics.
So the three young guns – Ko and Henderson are 19 and Jutanugarn is 20 – are all set for an end of season battle for the LPGA honors, including Player of the Year.
Sunday could be a record-breaking day for Chun, who remains on course for the lowest ever 72-hole score in a major. I only started practising last week.
Ko and Jutanugarn are trying to win the Annika Major Award, rewarding the major victor with the best combined record at all five majors of the season.
“I’m trying not to think about winning”, she said. But she hopes history will repeat itself – her last win came from four behind going into the last round.
“It’s a good thing my wood shots and chip shots were good enough”, said Ko, who previous year became the youngest man or woman to be ranked No. 1.
But she dumped her tee shot in water and took a triple-bogey six at the short 16th and then shed another stroke at the 18th for a 71. “I want to be happy on the course”, she said. Sauers, Parry and Blake shot 68 at Pebble Beach, and Sutherland and Pernice shot 67 at Poppy Hills.
Park says she is familiar with Chun’s game as the two have been competing against each other since their school days.
This year, another young player emerged into contention on her tournament debut.
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Engstrom has struggled in majors since becoming the youngest victor of the British Women’s Amateur title in June, missing the cut at the British and US Opens.
