Kraft Nabisco Championship - 1st Round

Brittany Lincicome carded a 66 and leads the Kraft Nabisco Championship by one stroke.  Angela Stanford, Brittany Lang and Ji Young Oh are tied for second while Kristy McPherson is in fifth place, two shots behind.

Lincicome birdied eight times on the day with two bogeys to post her best score since the opening round of the 2007 Evian Masters.  Stanford bogeyed once (the par-5 11^th) but offset that with four birdies and an eagle at the par-5 18^th.  The tee at 18 was moved to the forward box, shortening it to about 485 yards to tempt the longer hitters into playing their second shots to the island green.  Like Stanford, Lang took advantage and eagled 18 en route to her 67.  Oh "only" birdied that hole along with six others.  Notable scores after the jump:

UCLA Bruin Tiffany Joh and sponsor's invite Azahara Munoz are the current low amateurs at -1.  14-year-old Alexis Thompson, already a veteran of two U.S. Opens,  is only one shot behind that twosome along with Candace Schepperle.

Conditions on Thursday were absolutely perfect and the scoring showed it.  29 players scored under par and the average score was 73.01, nearly a full stroke lower than any KNC I have on record and 1.5 strokes lower than most.  They are expecting a little more wind today (15-25mph) so that average is likely to rise.

It's amazing sometimes what you stumble onto while Googling something else.  During the TV coverage there was a neat VTech commercial featuring Diana D'Alessio and Alena Sharp.  While looking for a clip of that ad, I found an article detailing the commercial shoot and this item about VTech member Karen Stupples.  It seems Karen underwent an emergency appendectomy in Phoenix last weekend and will be out of action for four to six weeks.  So the mystery of her KNC absence has been solved.  Hope your recovery goes well and we'll see you soon, Karen!