Choi's opening 67 leads LPGA Championship
PITTSFORD, N.Y. -- South Korean Chella Choi fought through wet, cold conditions on Friday to shoot a 5-under-par 67 and take the lead after the first round of the rain-delayed Wegmans LPGA Championship.
Choi hit all 14 fairways, helping her make six birdies and just one bogey -- on the par-4 13th hole -- to grab a one-shot lead over Morgan Pressel and Jiyai Shin.
Teeing off in the afternoon wave, Choi didn't let a persistent mist stop her from making birdies on six of her first 10 holes. The 22-year-old is seeking her first LPGA Tour victory. She has two top-10 finishes this season in 12 starts.
While Choi has yet to break through with a win, Choi has shown the ability to go low. She ranks ninth on the LPGA Tour coming into the event with 150 birdies this season.
Just 15 of the 147 players who teed off Friday broke par on the 6,534-yard water-logged layout. More than 2 1/2 inches of rain fell Thursday on the course, pushing the total to five inches in the past nine days. That made the gnarly rough even more lush and heavy, penalizing even the slightest of wayward shots.
Pressel exacted a bit of revenge on the course she believes caused a wrist injury a year ago when she was hitting out of that aforementioned rough. Going out in the morning wave, the 25-year-old Floridian birdied her final four holes to shoot a 4-under 68.
Shin, also from South Korea, went bogey free and birdied the difficult par-4 18th late in the day to match Pressel at 4 under.
Pressel in 2007 became the LPGA's youngest major champion when she won the Kraft Nabisco Championship as an 18-year-old. She is seeking her second major, as is playing partner Brittany Lincicome, who opened with a 3-under 67 and is in fourth place.
World No. 1 Inbee Park was at 2 under on the 18th tee but made double bogey to fall back to par and in a tie for 15th place. Park hit her third shot on the par-4 18th over the green into the wet rough and couldn't get up and down to save a bogey.
Former world No. 1 Yani Tseng provided a highlight with a hole-in-one on the par-3, 140-yard 15th with an 8-iron. She finished the round at par 72.
