Laura Davies was still sleeping when rookie Mayumi Hirase split the fairway with the opening tee shot on the way to a 5-under-par 67 that put her in the lead of the inaugural LPGA Tour Championship.
Davies wasn't much more awake an hour later, when she raced to the first tee just in time get her own tournament under way."I'd only been awake 30 minutes before I hit my first shot," said Davies, who overslept and almost missed a tee time for the first time in her 11-year pro career. "It was a close call, a bit of a worrying moment."
Davies three-putted the first hole, then shook off her sleepiness Thursday to shoot a 69 that put her in a group of four golfers two shots off the lead after one round of the 72-hole tournament.
The 3-under-par round on a Desert Inn golf course softened by a consistent drizzle tied Davies with Australian rookie Karrie Webb as the two leading money winners try to become the first to earn $1 million in a season on the LPGA Tour.
The surprise leader, though, was Hirase, another international rookie who had to win her last tournament in Japan to make the top-30 money list and get an invitation to the $700,000 season-ending event.
Hirase offset two bogeys with seven birdies on a drizzly desert day to take the first-round lead Thursday.
She was a shot ahead of Jane Geddes, Michelle McGann, Penny Hammel and Juli Inkster.
Australian Open
SYDNEY, Australia - Confronted with gusting winds and driving rain, Tiger Woods shot an even-par 72 today to almost certainly make the cut for the final two rounds of the Australian Open.
Woods, who opened the tournament with a 7-over 79, was nine strokes behind clubhouse leader Rolf Muntz on a day when 38 players, including leader Greg Norman, were unable to finish because of the rain.
"I've always been creative and you needed to be creative today," said Woods, the three-time U.S. Amateur champion who won two late-season PGA Tour events. "You got to play some shots you don't play every day."
Norman, the defending champion seeking his fifth Australian Open title, was level par through 16 holes and 5-under for the tournament when rain halted play for the third and final time.
World Cup of Golf
CAPE TOWN, South Africa - South Africa's Ernie Els and Wayne Westner shot 4-under-par 68s in rainy conditions to take a two-stroke lead after the first round of the World Cup of Golf.