Rookie From Japan Grabs Lpga Lead With Opening 67

It’s not surprising an international rookie leads the inaugural LPGA Tour Championship after one round. It just didn’t figure to be Japan’s Mayumi Hirase.

Hirase, whose rookie year has been overshadowed by the spectacular first season of Australia’s Karrie Webb, shot a 5-under 67 Thursday to take a one-shot lead over four others in the $700,000 season-ending tournament at the Desert Inn golf course in Las Vegas.

Hirase offset two bogeys with seven birdies on a drizzly desert day to take the first-round lead in the 72-hole event that features the tour’s top 30 regular-season money winners.

The round put her a shot ahead of a quartet of golfers on a course softened by rain showers throughout the day. In at 68 were Jane Geddes, Michelle McGann, Penny Hammel and Juli Inkster.

Another shot back were Webb and Laura Davies.

In Cape Town, South Africa, Tom Lehman and Steve Jones trailed Ernie Els and Wayne Westner of South Africa by 10 strokes after the first round of the World Cup of Golf.

Lehman, the British Open champion, and Jones, winner of the U.S. Open, both shot 73s to be at 146. Els and Westner were at 136 after they both shot 68s.

Tiger Woods struggled to a windblown 79 in the first round of the Australian Open to fall 12 strokes behind leader Greg Norman, who shot a 67 at Sydney, Australia.

The 79 was the worst of the 32 rounds Woods has played since turning pro on Aug. 27.

The national match-play tournament proposed for the course at Kiawah Island, N.C., where the 1991 Ryder Cup was held, has been postponed from December to June because of a need to secure a new sponsor.