Lewis Red-Hot in Thailand


Stacy Lewis fired a tournament-record-tying 9-under 63 to take the opening-round lead in the Honda LPGA Thailand. The $1.5 million LPGA Tour event began Thursday at Siam Country Club's Pattaya Old Course.

Lewis, the No. 3-ranked player in the world and the LPGA's 2012 Player of the Year, posted eight birdies, a bogey and a hole-out eagle on the par-4 third to equal the course record set by Suzann Pettersen in 2007 and repeated by Stacy Prammanasudh in '09, Ai Miyazato in '10 and I.K. Kim in '11.

The 28-year-old Lewis is three strokes ahead of France's Karine Icher, who carded six birdies and the rest pars, and four in front of American Gerina Piller, Scotland's Catriona Matthew, and South Koreans Inbee Park and Amy Yang.

Needless to say, Lewis was pleased with her start. "Last week I didn't hit it very well, so to come out today and really start hitting the ball solid early on [was great]," she told reporters. "I holed out for eagle on No 3 . . . that shot just gave me the confidence to really start swinging at it. I think I missed two greens all day."

Icher said the key to her round was improved work on the greens. "I changed my putter, so I had better sensation and feeling," said Icher. "It was better than last week."

Last week's winner in the Women's Australian Open, Jiyai Shin, opened with a 70. The player who finished as the runner-up, 15-year-old New Zealand amateur Lydia Ko, carded a 69.

Two-time defending champion Yani Tseng shot a five-bogey-two-birdie 75, and American Michelle Wie opened with a 74 in the 72-hole tournament.

For complete scoring, visit http://www.lpgascoring.com/public/Leaderboard.