Maria Hjorth and Michele Redman share the lead after opening rounds of 66 at the Longs Drugs Challenge.  In-Kyung Kim and Mikaela Parmlid are one shot back in third place.  Suzann Pettersen, Yani Tseng, Wendy Ward, Sarah Lee, Meaghan Francella, Reilley Rankin and Sarah Kemp are tied for fifth after posting rounds of 68.

Hjorth birdied four straight holes around the turn and got as low as -7 before a bogey at 7 (her 16th).  A pretty good performance considering Mimi is carrying her first child around with her!  After her lone bogey of the day at 13, Redman birdied three times in the last five holes.  Inky finshed her round with a hole-out eagle at 8 and a kick-in birdie at 9.  Other notable scores:

69  Julieta Granada, Charlotte Mayorkas, Sophie Giquel, Kate Golden, Mollie Fankhauser

70  Lorena Ochoa, Angela Stanford, Juli Inkster, Brandie Burton, Carolina Llano

71  Na Yeon Choi, Karen Stupples, Stacy Lewis, Mi Hyun Kim

72  Jeong Jang, Hee-Won Han, Eun-Hee Ji, Laura Diaz

73  Seon Hwa Lee, Karin Sjodin, Linda Wessberg, Jennifer Rosales

74  Paula Creamer, Helen Alfredsson

75  Jane Park, Mhairi McKay

76  Ji Young Oh, Dorothy Delasin, Wendy Doolan, Kelli Kuehne

77  Christina Kim, Russy Gulyanamitta

78  Gloria Park

82  Sun Young Yoo

Several of the names near the top are surprising.  While Michele Redman has played fairly well this season, Mikaela Parmlid hasn't finished better than T19.  Sarah Lee hasn't contended in over a year.  Ditto for Meaghan Francella.  Rookie Sarah Kemp hasn't been in contention since finishing T15 at the Safeway International back in March.  Reilley Rankin looks for her second Top 10 in three events (T10 at Bell Micro).  One shot behind that unlikely crew are Julieta Granada, Kate Golden, Charlotte Mayorkas and Sophie Giquel - all looking for their first Top 10s of 2008.

Most of them need a good week as they are among the Bubble Girls I'm following over the next two events trying to work their way into Category 1 (money list Top 80) or Category 11 (Top 100) status.  Those players are listed above in bold.  A lot of the non-exempt players who needed this event didn't get in because only 108 spots were available despite its "Full-Field" label.  Among the left-out were Erica Blasberg, Kris Tamulis, Jamie Hullett, Johanna Head, Eva Dahllof, Eunjung Yi, Michelle Ellis and Dina Ammaccapane.  For some reason, exempt player Danielle Downey isn't here either (she's in next week's Kapalua event along with those eight others).  All of these players are going to lose valuable ground in their chase for higher status.