Evian Masters - 1st Round

In-Kyung Kim, Na Yeon Choi and Becky Brewerton are tied for the lead after 18 holes at the Evian Masters.  Four players are tied for fourth one shot behind - Ji Young Oh, Karen Stupples, Karine Icher and Wendy Ward.

Kim combined three birdies, a hole-out eagle at the par-4 11^th hole and no bogeys to post her round of 67.  Choi bogeyed once but birdied three of her last four.  Brewerton - a three-time winner on the European Tour - birdied five times in a six-hole stretch around the turn, then bogeyed twice on the back nine before recovering to birdie 16 and 17.  I'm sure the fans (how do you say "fans" in French?) were thrilled to see Icher get off to a good start today with five birdies and one bogey.  The notable scores come as usual, after the jump:

If you didn't notice it on first glance, go back and look at that last line again.  I think if it hadn't happened already, it's time for Lorena Ochoa to get really concerned about her recent level of play.  At an event where she has never finished worse than fifth, she is currently T75 and in danger of missing her first cut since October 2005 (a streak of 93 consecutive cuts not missed).  Yani Tseng and Angela Stanford are both in that same danger area of missing their second straight cut after being among the hottest players in the world over the last 12 months.

Play was suspended late in the day for an hour and fifteen minutes because of lightning but there was no trouble finishing before dark (about 6:45 local time).  After they resumed, Wendy Ward had four holes left to improve on her -4 but she parred out.

Taped coverage will air on Golf Channel beginning at 6:30pm EDT tonight.

UPDATE:  I listed her in the Notables but forgot to mention that Jin Joo Hong played today after I guessed that she was the player Larry reported as having quit following the U.S. Open.  Well, today Larry says "the player that I heard was quitting golf didn't but another did" - Angela Park.  THAT would be one hell of a story - the 2007 Rookie Of The Year giving up less than two years later.  I hope it's not true.

From that same link - a hotel fire last night forced Amy Yang, Catriona Matthew and others to evacuate.  Yang and her dad had to throw mattresses from their second-story window to jump down on!!  Matthew's husband Graeme singed his feet but will be ok.  Thank God everybody got out ok.