(Rancho Mirage, California, 27 March 2003) World number one Annika Sorenstam returned a 4-under par 68 to lead after the first round of the Kraft Nabisco Championship at Mission Hills GC in California.
Sorenstam finished two strokes ahead of her nearest challengers, England’s Laura Davies, Patricia Meunier-Lebouc from France, Karrie Webb from Australia and Michelle Redman from the USA.
“I feel very pleased to be four under sitting here,” said Sorenstam, who began her round in howling winds.
“When we teed off this morning, it was very, very windy. I read the weather forecast, and I thought it was going to get worse. I was really looking at par as a good score today.”
In her bid to become the first woman to win the Nabisco three times in a row, Sorenstam made her first birdie of the day on the sixth hole. The Swede hit a 4-wood short of the green and chipped to six feet for a birdie at the ninth and made it two in a row with a 10-foot birdie at the 10th to reach three under.
And despite a bogey at the 16th, she recovered quickly and birdied from 12 feet at the par-3 17th. At the final hole, she hit a 9-iron to eight feet to post the lead.
“It’s always great to shoot under-par in a major the first day and get off to a good start,” added Sorenstam.
“Now I feel comfortable. I know you can’t win tournaments like this in the first day, but you can lose them and I feel happy with a good start.”
It was the first time that Sorenstam broke 70 in the opening round of this event since 1996 and she was also the only player in the field to shoot under 70.
But one contender with extra motivation to win this week is Davies, who would earn a place in the LPGA Hall of Fame should she emerge victorious.
Davies birdied the 18th to join the group in second place on 70 despite having dropped three early shots before hitting back with birdies at the eighth, 12th and 14th holes.
“It’s great to make a decent start,” said Davies, who won the ANZ Ladies’ Masters in Australia last month.
“I saw all the big names were on the leaderboard and you don’t want to give anyone too much of a lead and you always expect Annika to be up there, but she’s only two shots ahead. That’s not a problem.”
1. Annika Sorenstam 34-34–68 -4 2. Michele Redman 36-34–70 -2 2. Patricia Meunier-Lebouc 33-37–70 -2 2. Karrie Webb 38-32–70 -2 2. Laura Davies 37-33–70 -2 6. Lorena Ochoa 37-34–71 -1 6. Se Ri Pak 38-33–71 -1 6. Dorothy Delasin 36-35–71 -1 6. Karen Stupples 33-38–71 -1 6. Kim Saiki 33-38–71 -1 6. Catrin Nilsmark 35-36–71 -1 6. Catriona Matthew 35-36–71 -1 6. Rosie Jones 34-37–71 -1 6. Michelle Ellis 35-36–71 -1 15. Lorie Kane 38-34–72 E 15. Meg Mallon 35-37–72 E 15. Maria Hjorth 38-34–72 E 15. Tracy Hanson 36-36–72 E 15. a-Aree Song 36-36–72 E 15. a-Michelle Wie 36-36–72 E 15. Christina Kim 35-37–72 E 15. Kelly Robbins 37-35–72 E 15. Donna Andrews 38-34–72 E 15. Dawn Coe-Jones 35-37–72 E 15. Heather Bowie 36-36–72 E 26. Kasumi Fujii 38-35–73 +1 26. Shani Waugh 36-37–73 +1 26. Joanne Morley 38-35–73 +1 26. Amy Fruhwirth 35-38–73 +1 26. Gloria Park 38-35–73 +1 26. Patty Sheehan 33-40–73 +1 26. Hee-Won Han 37-36–73 +1 26. Charlotta Sorenstam 36-37–73 +1 34. Akiko Fukushima 35-39–74 +2 34. Jennifer Rosales 37-37–74 +2 34. Beth Bauer 38-36–74 +2 34. Dottie Pepper 38-36–74 +2 34. Wendy Ward 37-37–74 +2 34. Kelli Kuehne 37-37–74 +2 34. Woo-Soon Ko 37-37–74 +2 34. Cristie Kerr 39-35–74 +2 34. Janice Moodie 36-38–74 +2 34. Sophie Gustafson 37-37–74 +2 34. Brandie Burton 36-38–74 +2 34. Heather Daly-Donofrio 36-38–74 +2 34. Candie Kung 35-39–74 +2 34. a-Lindsey Wright 36-38–74 +2 34. Moira Dunn 38-36–74 +2 49. Stephanie Louden 41-34–75 +3 49. Angela Stanford 38-37–75 +3 49. Laurel Kean 37-38–75 +3 49. Vicki Goetze-Ackerman 35-40–75 +3 49. Betsy King 37-38–75 +3 49. Mhairi McKay 37-38–75 +3 49. Liselotte Neumann 38-37–75 +3 49. Juli Inkster 36-39–75 +3 49. Beth Daniel 40-35–75 +3 49. Rachel Teske 37-38–75 +3 49. Jackie Gallagher-Smith 37-38–75 +3 49. Tina Fischer 39-36–75 +3 49. Danielle Ammaccapane 37-38–75 +3 49. Mi-Hyun Kim 35-40–75 +3 49. Jeong Jang 36-39–75 +3 64. a-Virada Nirapathpongporn 38-38–76 +4 64. Jill McGill 39-37–76 +4 64. Grace Park 41-35–76 +4 64. Pat Hurst 38-38–76 +4 64. Pat Bradley 36-40–76 +4 64. Laura Diaz 38-38–76 +4 64. Amy Alcott 38-38–76 +4 64. Leta Lindley 38-38–76 +4 64. Suzanne Strudwick 39-37–76 +4 64. Helen Alfredsson 39-37–76 +4 64. Barb Mucha 38-38–76 +4 75. Nanci Bowen 38-39–77 +5 75. Tammie Green 35-42–77 +5 75. Silvia Cavalleri 37-40–77 +5 75. Sally Little 40-37–77 +5 75. Natalie Gulbis 39-38–77 +5 75. Kate Golden 38-39–77 +5 81. Yu Ping Lin 39-39–78 +6 81. Raquel Carriedo 40-38–78 +6 81. a-Naree Song 40-38–78 +6 81. Alison Nicholas 40-38–78 +6 81. Nancy Lopez 37-41–78 +6 86. Paula Marti 41-38–79 +7 86. Alice Miller 38-41–79 +7 86. Wendy Doolan 41-38–79 +7 86. Sherri Steinhauer 40-39–79 +7 86. Kris Tschetter 40-39–79 +7 86. Dale Eggeling 39-40–79 +7 92. Emilee Klein 42-38–80 +8 92. Mardi Lunn 38-42–80 +8 94. a-Becky Lucidi 40-41–81 +9 94. Pearl Sinn-Bonanni 40-41–81 +9 96. Marnie McGuire 41-42–83 +11 96. Nancy Scranton 41-42–83 +11 98. Hiromi Kobayashi 43-41–84 +12 99. Joanne Carner 40-45–85 +13 –LPGA
