Australian Karrie Webb shot an opening-round 71 on Wednesday to be three shots off the lead at the inaugural LPGA Lotte Championship in Hawaii.
American Beth Bader fired a four-under-par 68 to sit on top of the leaderboard, one shot ahead of a quartet of players including Taiwan’s Yani Tseng.
Bader, without a victory in 13 LPGA Tour seasons, teed off on 10 and had five birdies – including three in a row from the par-five fifth – before closing with a bogey at the par-four ninth at Ko Olina, where winds gusted up to 48 km/h.
Tseng, the world No.1 who has won three of the first six LPGA Tour events this season, was in a group sharing second on 69 that also included South Korean star Jiyai Shin, and American pair Angela Stanford and Brittany Lang.
South Korea’s Sun Young Yoo, coming off a playoff victory over compatriot IK Kim on April 1 in the Kraft Nabisco – the first women’s major of the year – led a group of six players on two-under 70.
Kim, who missed a one-foot putt on the final hole of regulation that would have given her the victory in the Kraft Nabisco, posted a 71.
Bader, ranked 401st in the world, is making her first LPGA start of 2012.
“It feels good,” said Bader, who said she’d played on the lower rung Grasshopper Tour to sharpen her game.
“Been a while since I’ve been here. Been a while since I actually teed it up in an event,” Bader said. “But it’s good.”
Tseng said solid putting helped her score well in the difficult, windy conditions.
“Overall, I stayed patient and I made lots of good putts,” Tseng said. “I still missed some, but I hung in there.
“It’s only first day of the tournament, so I’m pretty happy today. Still on the leaderboard, still can see my name up there, so very happy.”
Stanford said she was buoyed by her memories of her victory in the 2009 SBS Open at Turtle Bay – the last LPGA Tour event played in Hawaii.
“I love Hawaii. I love being here,” Stanford said.
“I love just the atmosphere, the people. It is always windy, usually, so I’m just comfortable.”
The 72-hole tournament will end on Saturday, timed to allow for the final round to be broadcast on Sunday morning in Asia and on Saturday evening’s prime-time viewing period on America’s east coast.
