Cristie Kerr shot a four-under 68 on Thursday for a share of the first-round lead with Stacy Lewis and Lee Seon-hwa in the LPGA Championship.
It’s still anybody’s event at the Locust Hill Country Club outside of Rochester as the tough conditions — including a persistent and gusting wind — created a logjam behind the leaders in the LPGA Tour’s second major of the season. Park In-bee, Mika Miyazato and Lindsey Wright were a stroke back.
Taiwan’s Teresa Lu was a further shot back after a two-under 70, while compatriot Amy Hung carded an even-par 72. Taiwan’s world No. 4 Yani Tseng struggled to a three-over 75, while Candie Kung was a shot further back after a 76.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Also, score one for Juli Inkster.
The 31-time LPGA Tour winner celebrated turning 50 with a 71. She was tied for 11th and 19 players were within three shots of the lead.
Paula Creamer, competing in only her second tournament since having surgery to repair ligament damage in her left thumb, was among those at one-under. Creamer struggled with her putting and played with her left thumb wrapped.
Kerr has plenty of incentive to win this weekend. Though she has 13 career victories, she’s only won one major — the 2007 US Women’s Open.
Then there’s the objective to climb into the race for top spot in the world rankings. She opened the week ranked fifth and with a victory has a chance to move firmly into contention after Ai Miyazato supplanted Shin Ji-yai in top spot last weekend.
Miyazato, who has won four tournaments this season, struggled on Thursday, finishing with a 76. Shin, meanwhile, shot a 72.
“This is what I wanted starting the first day,” Kerr said of being in contention. “You get kind of a taste of the blood in the water. It kind of motivates you and you look forward to getting up to play tomorrow.”
Starting on the 10th, Kerr opened with two birdies and then got to four-under after a birdie at 17, an easily reachable par-five. After a bogey on 18, she responded with a birdie on the second and then parred out. It wasn’t easy.
She saved par on her final hole — the par-three ninth — by two-putting on a tricky green.
Inkster, who was serenaded with Happy Birthday from the gallery at least four times on the course, rewarded her fans by getting to four-under through 12 to briefly take sole possession of the lead. Inkster, however, struggled by finishing with four bogeys — sandwiched between a par and a birdie — over the final six holes.
“It didn’t feel any different than it did yesterday,” Inkster said. “Maybe I’m trying to fool myself, I don’t know, but I feel like I’m in good shape.”
Tseng, who won the Kraft Nabisco, faltered down the stretch in her bid to win two straight majors. After getting to four-under through seven holes, the Taiwanese had five bogeys on her next seven holes — including four in a row — and finished at three-over.
Anna Nordqvist, the defending champion, opened with a 73.
Additional reporting by Staff Writer
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier