July 29 — Yani Tseng fired a flawless 4-under 68 to share the lead at the 2010 Women’s British Open.
With a birdie-eagle finish to add to her sole bird on the front side, Tseng took a one-shot lead over ’09 Kraft Nabisco Championship winner Brittany Lincicome and was two strokes better than Michelle Wie and In-Kyung Kim. Australia’s Katherine Hull added to the eagle parade at 18 to finish her first round tied with Tseng.
Career Grand Slam? A victory at chilly Royal Birkdale Golf Club on England’s northwest coast would give Tseng three of four career Grand Slam titles. The 21-year-old from Taiwan is the reigning Kraft Nabisco (it’ll always be the “Dinah Shore” to many) champ and won the LPGA Championship in 2008. Not bad for a golfer with three total LPGA wins.
Wie, who failed to make the cut in the U.S. Women’s Open earlier this month, hoped to put her worst performance in that championship behind her this week. She appeared to do just that, at least in Thursday’s opening round, when she followed an opening bogey with 15 straight pars and a birdie-eagle finish.
Distance queen. The 20-year-old Stanford student and former teenage golf phenom used her length off the tee to help her card an eagle-3 at the 472-yard, par-5 18th.
“I think there are a couple of holes where I can take advantage with my drivers,” Wie told reporters Wednesday.
Wie allowed that the success of fellow Americans Paula Creamer (2010 U.S. Open champ) and Cristie Kerr (2010 LPGA Championship winner) spurred her to practice and play harder.
Inspiration. “[Creamer’s victory] really does inspire me,” Wie said. “It makes me want to do better and motivates me to have my name alongside the other major winners at the end of the year.”
Wie, whose unfulfilled promise as the next women’s Tiger Woods some golf watchers blamed for the exclusion of 15-year-old Alexis Thompson from this week’s contest, responded to the inevitable comparison between the two wunderkinds.
Wie explained that her situation differed from that of the current child prodigy who’s absence has been the talk of the Open.
No exemption. Ladies Golf Union rules would have allowed Thompson, a member of the 2010 U.S. Curtis Cup team, to enter a final qualifying round. While Thompson lost that option when she turned pro immediately after the Curtis Cup matches at Massachusetts’ Essex County Club in June, she could have played in a first-stage qualifier the day after the U.S. Women’s Open.
Wie, who received special dispensation from the Ladies Golf Union when she was 15, said the two situations were different.
“They granted me the exemption because I was an amateur,” Wie said. “They didn’t grant me an exemption one year when I was a pro.”
Logjam. The ageless Juli Inkster (she’s actually 50) carded five birdies and four bogeys to put her in a six-player logjam at 71. Also sharing ninth place was newly crowned No. 1 Jiyai Shin.
Kerr finished the day at 1-over 73, as did New England golfer Libby Smith (Essex Junction, Vt.). Creamer and Christina Kim each carded a 74, while Morgan Pressel, who lost last week’s Evian Masters to Shin by one stroke, posted a 5-over 77.
Withdrawn. Natalie Gulbis had to withdraw with a bad back, according to Golfweek’s Beth Ann Baldry.,The fan favorite is reportedly on her way back to the U.S.
Click here for up-to-date scoring from the Women’s British Open.
(Emily Kay is a regular contributor to New England Golf Monthly. She also writes the Boston Golf Examiner and National Golf Examiner blogs.)
