Lindberg Shoots 64 to Go Up Early in Jamie Farr Toledo Classic


Sweden's Pernilla Lindberg carded a 7-under 64 to forge a two-stroke lead in the 72-hole Jamie Farr Toledo Classic. The $1.3 million LPGA Tour event started Thursday at Highland Meadows Golf Club in Sylvania, Ohio.

Lindberg, a 26-year-old who attended Oklahoma State and now resides in Stillwater, Okla., carded eight birdies and a bogey for her fine effort, two shots ahead of Americans Meredith Duncan and Angela Stanford, Japan's Mika Miyazato, France's Karine Icher, South Korea's Chella Choi and Numa Gulyanamitta of Thailand.

Lindberg, who's seeking her first LPGA victory, was pleased with how her opening round went. "I had a great day on the greens. It was really my putting that was the key today," she said. "I obviously put myself in good positions to make those putts. But it felt like every putt I hit all day had a chance to go in. So even the pars I made out there, they were still good birdie chances."

Lindberg entered the tournament with a lot of confidence. "It felt like I've been working pretty hard on my game for the last couple of months. In June, I felt that my game was going in the right direction, but I didn't get the scores out. Then over at Evian, especially the Irish Open last week, I felt more and more confident and the things that I've been working on are finally showing on the course. So it felt like I had some momentum coming into this week."

Duncan, a 2001 U.S. Women's Amateur champion, had a simply strategy Thursday. "I just tried to hit fairways and greens," said the 32-year-old, who's also in search of her maiden LPGA title. "I'm hitting it pretty short right now, just because I'm hitting it shorter. Got a bad back. I just tried to literally hit it in the fairway and hit the middle of the green. These greens are pretty small. So unless I've got a wedge in the green, I have a hybrid, and just hit it to the middle one and see what happens."

Three back of the leader are Japan's Ayaka Kaneko, American Gerina Piller, and Koreans Jenny Shin, Amy Yang, So Yeon Ryu and Ilhee Lee.

Among those shooting 68 were Americans Brooke Pancake, amateur Rachel Rohanna, Paula Creamer, Jacqui Concolino, Jane Park, Danah Bordner, Danielle Kang, Stacy Lewis, Lizette Salas and Jane Rah.

Defending champion Na Yeon Choi (no relation to Chella) opened with a 70. No. 1-ranked Yani Tseng shot a 1-over 72, and American Michelle Wie posted a 75.

For all the scores, visit http://www.lpgascoring.com/public/Leaderboard.aspx.