LPGA Championship - 1st Round

Nicole Castrale's round of 65 gave her the early lead at the 55th LPGA Championship.  Rookie Anna Nordqvist is in second place one shot behind, Shanshan Feng is third and down by two with seven players tied for fourth after having shot 68.

Castrale went out in 30 with six birdies to tie an event record for 9-hole score relative to par.  A bogey at 18 was the only one she suffered all day.  Nordqvist also bogeyed only once, at 6 en route to her career-best round of 66.  Feng's only bogey came at the par-4 13th.  The scores of note include:

Angela Park shot 83 and withdrew after the round.  An unusual number of stars had rough days - Cristie Kerr, Paula Creamer, Suzann Pettersen most notably - and none of the five favorites I picked out in my preview managed to break par.  Lorena Ochoa was -2 until she bogeyed her last two holes.  Guess I shouldn't have snubbed Angela Stanford or Na Yeon Choi...

Golf Channel didn't give us that extra coverage this time around.  Last night's replay was just that, a repeat of the three hours that aired during the afternoon.