Park & Tseng Off to Good Starts at HSBC-Women's Champions


A pair of former No. 1s, Inbee Park and Yani Tseng, fired 6-under 66s to share the first-round lead in the HSBC-Women's Champions. The $1.4 million LPGA Tour event began Thursday on the Serapong Course at Sentosa Golf Club in Singapore.

Park, a 26-year-old South Korean, carded six birdies, while Tseng, also 26 and a native of Taiwan, had seven birdies and a bogey. The two enter the second round one shot ahead of American Angela Stanford.

Trailing the leaders by two is current No. 1 Lydia Ko of New Zealand along with American Mo Martin, Korean Jenny Shin, Australia's Karrie Webb and Colombia's Mariajo Uribe.

"The front nine is a tougher nine," said Park, five of whose birdies came on the home half. "I didn't play too aggressively on the front nine, but the back nine I had a lot of shots."

After finishing tied for second in last week's tournament in Thailand, Tseng is seeing a resurrection of her once brilliant career. Between June 2008 and March 2012, she racked up 15 titles on the LPGA Tour. But Tseng hasn't won since her last title at the KIa Classic three years ago.

"I will tell my friends and my parents that they don't have to scroll down to see my name on the website. They can just see right on top the first page," said Tseng, who was atop the Rolex Ranking for 109 consecutive weeks during her hot streak.

Tied for ninth after 69s are Americans Lexi Thompson and Stacy Lewis, Spain's Carlota Ciganda, Korea's Hee Young Park and Sweden's Anna Nordqvist.

Thompson had the shot of the day when she aced the par-3 14th hole. "I hit a low, controlled 7-iron from 150," Thompson said of her tee shot. "It was looking good the whole way, so I was just waiting for it to drop. I let go of my club. I don't even know what I did honestly."

Defending champion Paula Creamer opened with a 2-over 74, and reigning U.S. Women's Open champion Michelle Wie a 73.

For all the scores, visit http://www.lpga.com/tournaments/hsbc-womens-champions/leaderboard.