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Brittany Lang is the leader by one after the first round of the U.S. Women's Open.  Amy Yang, Inbee Park, M.J. Hur and amateur Kelli Shean are tied for second at -1 while Sakura Yokomine and Mhairi McKay are tied for sixth at even par.

After playing the front nine in even par, Lang birdied 11 from six feet to go -1.  She missed a downhill five-footer for birdie at 13 but had a nearly identical putt at 14 which she made to take the lead.  Brittany was 40 feet away at 15 but somehow snaked it in to open up a two-shot lead.  Bogey at 18 halved her overnight margin.  Yang was +3 through three holes but came back thanks to an eagle at 9 and birdies at 4 and 11.  Amy missed an eight-footer for par at 15 but got the shot back with birdie at 18.  Park finished up on the front nine - birdies at 4 and 6 moved her into red numbers.  Hur's day was very steady with one birdie and bogey on the front and a six-footer for birdie at 11. 

For much of the afternoon, the amateur Shean held the lead.  Starting on the back nine, Kelli bogeyed 12 but birdied three of the next four to go -2.  She stayed there for three hours, on one occasion leading by two shots.  At 3 she recovered from the huge church-pew bunker to sink an 18-footer for par.  At 7 Shean drove into the rough and was forced to play her second standing in a bunker.  She played a great shot to about seven feet but wasn't able to can the birdie.  At 9 she drove across the hazard line but short of the tall fescue.  Unluckily, her ball rolled into a deep divot.  Kelli chopped it out into the fairway then played her third to the green, nearly a hundred feet from the pin.  She lagged nicely to 12 feet but couldn't yet again save par, still finishing with the most unexpected round of the day.  Unexpected?  Shean is a 22-year-old hearing-impaired South African who only picked up the game seven years ago, is a rising senior at the University of Arkansas (albeit a two-time All-American) and had her boyfriend who doesn't play golf carrying her bag.  "Unexpected" is an understatement.

Here are some other notable scores (some of them are very unexpected as well):

Aside from the temperatures in the low 90s, conditions were actually very good so that should give you an idea of how difficult scoring is going to be this week.  Thunderstorms are in tomorrow's forecast but even with the softer greens that might bring, I think even par is a lock to win it and maybe +1 or +2 will be good enough.  The huge greens break so many different ways and are so fast that the players have to be close AND under the hole to make a confident stroke.

Assorted other notes from the broadcast that I couldn't quickly figure how to weave into a narrative:

1.  None of the names at 73 in the Notables box is typo'd.  Thompson told the ESPN crew that she wants to be known as "Lexi" and that's also the name on her bag.

2.  H.J. Choi was using a yellow ball today.  Don't know if that's usual for her but if not, look for her to ditch it after shooting 80.

3.  Meg Mallon announced in Toledo last week that she is retiring from competitive golf.  Several injuries over the last few seasons were apparently too difficult to overcome.  Just a handful of points shy of automatically qualifying for the Hall of Fame, Meg is a player who just might make it someday on a Veterans Committee vote.  I'm sad to see her call it quits.