Wilmington, Del. ? The LPGA Championship has produced career Grand Slams twice in the last three years, so DuPont Country Club is no stranger to history.

With Beth Daniel in control, this could be one for the ages.

Daniel, a 45-year-old who is seven years removed from her last victory, seized control Saturday with 3-under-par 68 that expanded her lead to four strokes and moved her one round closer to becoming the oldest woman to win a major.

Babe Zaharias was 42 years, 11 months when she won the 1954 U.S. Women’s Open.

“I think it would be a great story,” Daniel said.

She gave herself the chance with a great round six birdies on a course where the premium is on par, the last one a 25-foot putt on the 18th hole that found the center of the cup and left Daniel smiling like a teen-ager.

“I’m making a lot of birdies, and that makes up for a lot of mistakes,” said Daniel, who was at 8-under 205.

Se Ri Pak, who won the LPGA Championship for her first career victory in 1998, did well to keep within four strokes of a woman nearly twice her age. The 24-year-old Korean had only one bogey in a round of 68, sticking to her plan of hitting fairways and greens.

“I didn’t push anything,” Pak said. “I had a great score.”

Not much went right for Karrie Webb, who won the LPGA Championship last year to complete the career Grand Slam. She fought her swing most of the day, got nasty lies in the rough and couldn’t get enough putts to fall.

That kind of game is a recipe for disaster at DuPont this week, although Webb managed to scrape out a 72 and was at 211 along with Kim Saiki (69). They were the only players who remained under par going into the final round.

The last six winners of the LPGA Championship all had at least a share of the 54-hole lead, although history is not entirely on Daniel’s side.

This is only the third time she has held at least a share of the 54-hole lead in a major championship, and the first since the 1983 Nabisco Championship.

Her only major in a Hall of Fame career she was inducted two years ago came in the 1990 LPGA Championship when it was played at Bethesda (Md.) Country Club.

“If I win, it’s not going to make my career. If I don’t win, it’s not going to break my career,” Daniel said. “My motivation is always to win.”

Daniel has 32 career victories, the last coming in 1995. She overcame shoulder surgery two years later that cast serious doubts about her future.

Nothing about her game was in doubt on a dry, warm day at DuPont that made the greens even faster and harder than they were the first two rounds.

The only time Daniel was in serious trouble came on No. 10, where she missed the green long and left and faced a downhill chip from grass that covered her ankles. Her first chip stayed in the rough, but she managed to chop the next one to 10 feet and save bogey.

Annika Sorenstam’s hopes of a Grand Slam will have to wait another year.

She was befuddled again by the fast, firm greens at DuPont and posted a 2-over 73 in the third round to fall 14 strokes behind.