Wild Ride At Women’s Open Unknown Briles-Hinton Leads; Cast Of Characters Follows

A mountain was over their shoulders, a deer was in front of the 12th tee and a 16-year-old invaded the leaderboard. The 50th U.S. Women’s Open met the wilderness Thursday, and the results were minor gusts, a severe rough, sloping greens and, out of the blue, a course-record score of 66.

Jill Briles-Hinton, who snuck her miniature schnauzers into her hotel room, played miniature golf here, too. Her putting on the Broadmoor Resort’s East course was deadeye, and her crawling, “miracle,” uphill birdie putt on the 18th hole landed her a 4-under-par 66 and the firstround lead.

“I’ll probably sleep on it, think about it and get nervous,” Briles-Hinton said.

But, Thursday, she had gourmet jelly beans to toss to the crowd and a deer she wanted to pet. The par-3 12th hole is adjacent to trees and brush, and a deer scurried frantically toward the tee box just as Tammie Green was pulling back to drive.

“My caddie said, ‘Hold up, hold up, a deer’s coming,”’ Green said. The deer backpedaled to the green and escaped through the pine trees, but an unnerved Green bogeyed the hole and finished with a 2-under-par 68.

So, all the elements were in Briles-Hinton’s favor Thursday, from deer to the undulating greens that she navigated to perfection.

Tania Abitbol of Spain, Jean Bartholomew of Duke University and veteran Pat Bradley each blasted rounds of 67, with some groups still out on the course early Thursday evening. But it was a 16-year-old Korean who supplied the most shocking thunder off the tee.

Grace Park, sent to America four years ago to produce rounds just like these, tallied a 1-underpar 69 that included a 25-foot putt for eagle on the par-5 ninth hole. She is a high school junior-to-be, lives with a guardian in Phoenix who sets a mean curfew, sees her parents only in the summer and averages about 242 fierce yards per drive.

Not only is she new to the country, she is new to her first name: Grace. Her true Korean name is Jieun Park, but, when she arrived in Hawaii in 1991 - to further her game and education - her father renamed her Grace. “My dad just picked it,” she said. “I don’t know where he got it.”

But it is a name to store in the memory bank, as is Briles-Hinton. Briles-Hinton is 32, a native of Peoria, Ill., a non-winner on the LPGA tour and has played only four U.S. Opens and almost did not attempt to qualify this year.

“This is normally a week off for me,” she said.

A top collegiate player at the University of South Florida and the University of Miami, she was the classic one-dimensional player: long off the tee, crooked on the green.

“I think it’s the most boring thing in the world to practice,” she said of her short game.

But her husband and caddie, Bob Hinton, implored her to attend the “Pelz Short Game School,” and the result was a grip change that impacted Thursday’s leaderboard. She now uses a cross-handed grip, and she needed only 22 putts Thursday to record her 66 (68 by Nancy Lopez was the previous low here), with a 32 on the back.

It was her father, Joe, who taught her to play. “I have two sisters, and they did the girl stuff; they played with Barbie dolls,” Briles-Hinton said. “But I was daddy’s little boy.”

Her father and her two schnauzers were present Thursday.

So, it was a morning and afternoon of novelties. First the 16-year-old and then a pregnant woman shooting 1-under-par 34 on the front. Dawn CoeJones of Canada is due to deliver her baby in a month, but would not dare miss this year’s Open.

As for the other novelty Thursday - the deer - the LPGA was happy to report: It was a female.