World Number one Yani Tseng finds herself back on top of the leaderboard after round one of the Kia Classic in Carlsbad.
The 23-year-old Taiwanese star, fresh off her 14th LPGA Tour win at the Founder's Cup last week, shot a five-under 67 at La Costa on Thursday to share the lead with Sweden's Caroline Hedwall and South Korea's Ji Young Oh.
Tseng is building towards the first major of the year, next week's Kraft Nabisco Championship, and is looking in unstoppable form.
She birdied the first, second, third, ninth, 12th and 17th holes, with just one shot dropped at the short eighth.
"It plugged in the bunker," Tseng said of her tee shot that led to the bogey. "I didn't have a good lie there. I chipped out pretty good to 6 feet and just missed (the putt) a little bit to the right."
True to form, though, Tseng bounced right back with a birdie at the ninth, her 18th, after her approach shot hit the left side of the fringe and kicked onto the green, coming to rest a few feet from the hole.
"I think I hit a good shot," she said. "Sometimes you hit a good shot, you get good luck and a good bounce."
Tseng hit only eight of 14 fairways and 12 of 18 greens in regulation, and relied on her touch around the greens to make most of her gains.
"I didn't hit a lot of fairways," she added. "This golf course is very narrow and the rough is really long. If you don't hit the fairways, it's kind of very hard to get close to the pin."
Tseng doesn't have it all her own way this week, however. Not only is she tied with two very talented opponents, but four more players - Americans Jennifer Johnson and Brittany Lincicome, Norway's Suzann Pettersen and
South Korean Jiyai Shin - lie only one shot back on four under in a tightly packed leaderboard.
South Koreans Amy Yang and Sun Young Yoo and Canada's Stephanie Sherlock are two shots off the lead on three under.
golf365.com