Grand China Air - 1st Round

Laura Diaz leads by three shots after opening with a 63 at the Grand China Air LPGA.  Seon Hwa Lee is in second place while Karen Stupples and H.J. Choi are tied for third.

After two early birdies, Diaz took her only bogey of the day at the par-3 5^th then collected eight more birdies on the final 13 holes.  Lee didn't bogey at all while posting 33 on both the front and back.  Stupples and Choi also went bogey-less, each with three birdies on the front and two on the back.  The other scores look like this:

68  Ji Young Oh, Louise Friberg

69  Candie Kung, Tao-Li Yang

70  In-Kyung Kim, Helen Alfredsson, Shanshan Feng, Christina Kim, Allison Fouch

70  Teresa Lu, Jimin Kang, Catriona Matthew, Young Kim, Shi Hyun Ahn

71  Na Yeon Choi, Jeong Jang, Juli Inkster, Jill McGill, Diana D'Alessio

72  Annika Sorenstam, Yani Tseng, Suzann Pettersen, Song-Hee Kim, Hong Mei Yang

73  Hee-Won Han, Katherine Hull, Jane Park, Brittany Lang

74  Cristie Kerr, Eun-Hee Ji, Mi Hyun Kim, Stacy Prammanasudh, Se Ri Pak

75  Angela Park, Morgan Pressel, Minea Blomqvist

76  Kristy McPherson

77  Inbee Park, Sun Young Yoo

The two local Chinese who were pointed out to me in comments the other day, Tao-Li Yang and Hong Mei Yang, were the only two locals who did not score over par.  Most of them wound up in the 74-78 range.  None of the players have to worry about missing the cut - there isn't one for this 54-hole event.

I wonder what happened to my tourney favorite Suzann Pettersen?  She started strong with birdies on two of the first three holes but didn't birdie any more while taking two bogeys to post 72.  Both of my CYA choices got derailed by double-bogey sixes - Cristie Kerr at 9 and In-Kyung Kim at 6.  Inky recovered to shoot 70 but Kerr only got home in 74.

The yardage for Haikou West is now posted at 6422, just a little on the long side for an LPGA event but nowhere near the monstrous 6887 they were showing earlier in the week.

The Asian swing is a godsend for our good friend and night owl The Constructivist.  Be sure to check out his semi-live blogging at Mostly Harmless.