Fellow Countrywoman Neumann Replaces Sorenstam Atop Open

Golf’s “other” Swede is leading the U.S. Women’s Open.

Annika Sorenstam, a picture of calm and grace as she dominated her sport over the last two years, crumbled Thursday under the intense pressure of trying to make golf history by becoming the first woman to win three consecutive Opens.

Meanwhile, her countrywoman Liselotte Neumann shot a 4-under-par 67 to take the first-round lead in the premier event of women’s professional golf.

Neumann, winner of the 1988 U.S. Open, used precise putting and, over the difficult final four holes, a conservative strategy to forge a one-shot lead.

“I made some great putts,” she said, “and I think 4-under was about as good as it could have gotten today.”

Eight golfers were within two shots of the lead. Susie Redman, Kelly Robbins, Deb Richard and Se Ri Pak were tied for second at 68.

Hall of Famer Nancy Lopez, who has never won a U.S. Open, was among four golfers at 69 after an erratic round that featured four birdies and two bogeys.

The 14-hour first round was played in intermittent showers before the skies dried out in the final few hours of competition on the 6,365-yard Witch Hollow course. The 5-year-old course, one of two at the Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club, was carved out of groves of trees and weedy wetlands in the rolling hills 25 miles west of Portland.

Sorenstam’s collapse to a 6-over-par 77, punctuated by a disastrous triple-bogey on No. 9, was as hard to explain as Redman’s first ever hole-in-one, which vaulted her into contention.

Sorenstam’s competitors could hardly believe she was 10 shots out of the lead.

“We have a couple of more days. I’m sure she can turn it around and bring it back,” Neumann said. “For Annika, I don’t think anything is impossible.”

In the kind of abrupt shift of fate that was common Thursday, Trish Johnson hit a miserable third-shot line drive into the reedy swamp in front of the 18th green en route to a double-bogey 7 that left her tied with Lopez, Muffin Spencer-Devlin and Lorie Kane at 69.

Sorenstam began her round with a bogey, then things got worse.

On the par-4, 388-yard 9th, she hit her tee shot into a bunker. Then, using a 9-wood, she hit her second shot far to the right, into deep, clingy fescue that hid her ball so long she nearly had to give it up for lost before a member of the gallery found it.

She took a swing, and the ball traveled about three inches, then she swung again, finally getting back onto the course. She finished with a 7, her first triple-bogey in recent memory and leaving her stunned at 5-over-par 41 through nine holes.

“I was a little confused. I was a little upset. I didn’t know what was happening,” she said. “As far as I can remember the last three or four years, I haven’t been 5-over-par after nine holes. It’s like, ‘Where am I and what am I doing? Take me away from here.’ ” Could all the attention about the three-peat have rattled her?

“It must have,” she said. “This is the worst round for me all year.”

Neumann, an eight-time winner on the LPGA tour, said she doesn’t feel like she is overlooked because of Sorenstam’s success.

“I’m just trying to play my game. It’s fun to be from the same country as Annika when you look at all the success she’s had. She’s probably the best player in the world today,” Neumann said.

Neumann has not finished higher than a tie for seventh this year and was 47th, 20th, 29th and 41st in the last four tournaments, mostly because of poor putting.

But her putter turned hot on Thursday.

She had four birdies and no bogeys in her round, knocking in a 40-foot birdie putt on the par-3, 194-yard 12th. She also had 12-foot birdie putts on 7 and 9 after saving par on the par-4 3rd.