Sorenstam, Park lurk behind Rosales at LPGA

Annika Sorenstam and finished with two birdies. Grace Park ended her round with two bogeys. Both wound up chasing Jennifer Rosales, who played a steady hand Thursday with a 5-under-par 66 in the LPGA Championship in Wilmington, Del.

Rosales, who picked up her first LPGA victory last month in Atlanta, took advantage of the par 5s and never came seriously close to a bogey at difficult DuPont Country Club to take a one-shot lead over Karen Stupples, Gloria Park and Chiharu Yamaguchi.

“I hit a lot of fairways. That was the key,” Rosales said. “I missed a lot of putts out there. I kept putting and putting until I made some, and kept going.”

It took her to her first 18-hole lead on the LPGA Tour — at a major, no less.

But the 25-year-old Filipino, who won the NCAA title as a freshman at Southern Cal, has been around long enough to know that doesn’t mean much, especially with Sorenstam and Park only two shots behind at 68.

Sorenstam birdied two of her first three holes to make her presence felt quickly on a steamy day at DuPont, but she could have unraveled after chopping up the par-4 seventh, her 16th hole.

After missing the fairway so far to the right she was completely blocked by trees, Sorenstam gambled by trying to punch a 7-iron from an uphill lie in deep grass, under the branches and around a tree with hopes of getting it into the bunker some 120 yards away. Instead, she advanced it only 40 yards and had to power a sand wedge over a pine to the front of the green, leading to bogey that dropped her to 1 under.

Next up was the tough par-3 eighth, a 191-yard hole with the hole cut back right on a green that slopes severely in that direction.

“I was a little fired up at the time,” Sorenstam said. She was so steamed that her caddie suggested one less club, a 6-iron, to compensate for her adrenaline. She stuck with the 5-iron, and hit it to 4 feet below the cup for birdie.

“Just one of those great shots,” she said. “That was a key hole, and to finish with birdie made it sweeter.”

Her final birdie was no less spectacular. From 238 yards in the fairway, Sorenstam went for the green with “the hardest 4-wood I’ve ever hit in my life.”

It climbed up the slope and stopped 30 feet below the hole, and Sorenstam was so thrilled that she deadpanned to her caddie, “I wish it was closer.”

She two-putted for birdie and a 68, leaving her in good position after one round.

Park, who lost to Sorenstam in a playoff last year at the Championship, also liked her position, but not the way she finished.

Se Ri Pak, a two-time winner of the LPGA, and Cristie Kerr were in a large group at 69. Juli Inkster birdied the last two holes to join Beth Daniel among those at 70.

•Welch’s has dropped title sponsorship of the LPGA tournament in Tucson. The Welch’s/Fry’s LPGA Championship was the lowest-paying tournament on the 2004 LPGA schedule, with a purse of $800,000.

The tournament was in limbo in 2002 after Circle K pulled out as a title sponsor with Welch’s. The foundation and Welch’s then brought in Fry’s and saved the tournament from being discontinued.

Singh takes first-round lead

Vijay Singh took the pressure off his shaky putting game with solid driving and pinpoint short-iron play. Hitting it close on hole after hole, Singh shot an 8-under 63 to take the first-round lead in the Buick Classic in Harrison, N.Y., the final PGA Tour event before the U.S. Open next week at Shinnecock Hills.

Singh, seeking his third victory in the tournament, played his final nine holes — the front nine on the Westchester Country Club course — in 6-under 30 to take a one-stroke lead over Fredrik Jacobson.

David Frost, the 1992 winner on the hilly, tree-lined course, opened with a 66, and Fred Couples topped a large group at 67. Ernie Els, a two-time Buick Classic champion coming off a victory Sunday in the Memorial, was five strokes back at 68 in a large group that included Davis Love III, David Toms and Padraig Harrington.

Masters champion Phil Mickelson opened with a 69 in an event that features 25 of the top 30 players on the money list.

“There’s a lot of birdies out there,” Mickelson said. “I just had a hard time getting the ball close to the hole. Fortunately, I didn’t make any big mistakes.”

Singh had nine birdies — eight from inside 10 feet — and one bogey to finish a stroke off the course record set by Dan Sikes in 1967 and matched by Jim Wright (1976) and Peter Jacobsen (1982).