Paraguay golfer Julieta Granada has fired a first-round, six-under 66 for a two-shot lead at the season-ending LPGA Tour Championship.

Sarah Jane Smith is the best-placed Australian at two-under in a tie for sixth.

The 28-year-old Granada, who has not won on the LPGA Tour since capturing the 2006 ADT Championship, posted her lowest opening-round score of the year.

“It was a fun day today,” said Granada, who finished tied for fifth at this year’s Women’s British Open. “I hit a lot of greens and I had plenty of birdie chances. My stroke was on and I was making lots of putts, so that’s fun.”

Sandra Gal is alone in second place at four-under 68 at Tiburon Golf Club at The Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort.

World number two Stacy Lewis, who narrowly leads world number one Park In-Bee in both the player of the year standings, used a late eagle to jump up the leaderboard and she is tied for third at three-under 69 with Belen Mozo and Caroline Hedwall.

Ryu So-Yeon, Marina Alex, Carlota Ciganda, Angela Stanford, Haeji Kang and Park Hee-Young are all tied for sixth with Smith at two-under 70.

South Korea’s Park and 17-year-old Lydia Ko, of New Zealand, shot one-under 71s and they are tied for 13th with seven others. Lewis, Park and Ko can take home the season-ending $1 million Tour bonus with an outright win this week.

Granada drained back-to-back birdies yet again on the par-four 13th and the par-five 14th to jump up to five under. Granada finished strong with three birdies on 15, 16 and 18 to go along with a gain on the par-five 17th.

“I actually love playing in the wind,” said Granada. “I do really well at the British Open so I love to control my ball flight in the wind. I take pride in that so every time it’s windy I’m looking forward to it.”