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Oh, Hurst lead US Women’s Open

Yani Tseng of Taiwan tees off on the first hole in the first round of the US Women’s Open golf championship at the Interlachen Country Club in Edina, Minnesota, on Thursday. PHOTO: AP

South Korea’s Oh Ji-young and Pat Hurst shot 6-under 67s on Thursday and shared the first-round lead at the US Women’s Open, while Annika Sorenstam staggered to a 75, her highest opening round at the US championship since 1992.

Oh started on the back nine with a pair of birdies and finished her round with another, while Hurst had three birdies on her final four holes to join her atop the leaderboard.

Sorenstam, played before the largest galleries of a sunshine-filled afternoon, but the three-time champion who is retiring at the end of the year, made four bogeys in a six-hole stretch and had her worst first round since she played the US Open as an amateur.

Lorena Ochoa, the No. 1 player in women’s golf, who has won two of the last three majors, didn’t make a birdie until the 14th hole in the morning, when the conditions were soft. She rallied with three birdies on her last five holes for a 73.

US teen Michelle Wie, hoping to build on recent momentum, took a quintuple-bogey 9 on the ninth hole and shot 81.

Hurst figured she was headed in a similar direction until one putt changed everything.

She had missed the cut in her last two events, including the McDonald’s LPGA Championship, which she chalked up to her putting.

On greens that became firmer in the afternoon sun, she stubbed a chip on the 13th for bogey and followed that by missing a 4-foot par putt.

That’s when Hurst started moaning to her caddie about a vicious cycle she couldn’t shake.

“I was whining,” she said. “I was being a golfer.”

Then came a 35-foot birdie putt down the hill that disappeared into the cup, and Hurst looked up at her caddie in mock disgust.

“It just turned it all around right there,” she said.

She birdied the 16th hole, reached the par-5 18th in two with a 3-wood for a two-putt birdie, then took advantage on the consecutive par 5s on the front nine. Hurst hit a slight fade with her 7-wood up the hill to a right hole location on the par-5 second and made a 15-foot eagle, then capped off her big run with a sand wedge to another elevated green that stopped 10 feet away.

Kim Song-hee was another shot back after a 68, while Louise Friberg and US Women’s Amateur champion Maria Jose Uribe of Colombia were at 69. Laura Davies, who won the US Women’s Open in 1987 and needs one more major to get into the World Golf Hall of Fame, was among those at 70.

Thirty-two players broke par, the most for an opening round of the U.S. Women’s Open since 43 players shot under par in 1999 at Old Waverly in Mississippi.

The Donald Ross design has five par 5s, which helps.

The greens received a good dose of water overnight, and the overcast skies made them even more receptive to approach shots.

Oh was in the morning group and didn’t have to work terribly hard on the greens. All seven of her birdies were inside 10 feet, and four of them were inside 2 feet.

Taiwan’s Yani Tseng was among those at 71, followed by Candie Kung at 72, Amy Hung at 77 and Sin Ham at 78.
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