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Ariya Jutanugarn leads the LPGA Lotte Championship after playing the front nine at Ko Olina in 6-under 30.
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KAPOLEI, Hawaii -- Thai teen Ariya Jutanugarn shot an 8-under 64 on Wednesday at Ko Olina to take a one-stroke lead over Suzann Pettersen and Hee Kyung Seo after the first round of the LPGA Lotte Championship.
The 17-year-old Jutanugarn played the front nine in 6-under 30 in her afternoon round, dropped a stroke on the par-4 10th with her lone bogey, then made a 20-foot eagle putt on the par-5 14th and birdied the par-4 15th. She matched the tournament record in second-year event after only getting into the field Sunday when she won a qualifier.
"I have very good front nine, but I just wanted to make more birdies," Jutanugarn said. "My record is 8 under and I want it to be lower. When I had bogey on 10, I thought I wasn't really confident in my putting. So, when I had eagle, I was more confident."
Jutanugarn was in position to win the Honda LPGA Thailand in February, only to collapse on the final hole to hand Inbee Park the title. Jutanugarn closed with a triple bogey to blow a two-stroke lead, missing out on a playoff when she lipped out a 3-foot putt. She rebounded three weeks ago in Morocco, winning the Ladies European Tour's Lalla Meryem Cup for her first professional title.
"I was very confident today," she said.
Pettersen had nine birdies and two bogeys in her morning round. The Norwegian is a 10-time winner on the LPGA Tour and won an LET event earlier this year in China.
"I went out today and tried to be really aggressive," said Pettersen, coming off a third-place tie two weeks in the Kraft Nabisco Championship. "My dad was so disappointed after the Kraft that I left all the putts short. He's like, `You got to hit the ball past the hole to make putts.'"
Pettersen played in a pair of unreleased Nike shoes that she's been testing back home. She got the green light to wear them this week.
"It's a female version of Tiger Woods' shoes," Pettersen said. "I must say I feel the greens a lot better because the foot is sitting a lot better in the shoe."
Seo, the 2010 Kia Classic winner, had a bogey-free round in the afternoon.
Hyo Joo Kim, the 17-year-old South Korean player who played in a group with Jutanugarn and 15-year-old New Zealand amateur Lydia Ko, matched Danielle Kang with a 66.
Ko had a 71. She won the Canadian Open in August to become the youngest LPGA Tour winner at 15 years, 4 months, 2 days. The South Korea-born Ko has two other pro victories, the New South Wales Open last year and New Zealand Women's Open this year, and won the U.S. Women's Amateur last season.
"It was very fun because everybody is young," Jutanugarn said. "We're friends. I've played with them before."
Second-ranked Stacy Lewis, the winner of consecutive events this year in Singapore and Phoenix, was three strokes back at 67 along with defending champion Ai Miyazato, Beatriz Recari, So Yeon Ryu, Jane Park, Rebecca Lee-Bentram, Jane Rah and Gerina Piller.
Lewis missed the cut last year, the last time she has failed to advance to weekend play.
"I learned a lot from this tournament last year," Lewis said. "I think you learn more from failures than you do from success."
Recari, playing the back nine first in a group with Pettersen and Angela Stanford, Recari birdied four of the first six holes.
"We teed off at 7:50 and it was already blowing pretty hard, especially on the back nine," the Spaniard said. "Those holes are really open to the ocean. So, I think it was a good challenge out there.
She enjoyed playing alongside Pettersen.
"It's always great to play with her because she's so competitive," Recari said. "It got to the point where we were feeding off each other because we were making birdie, birdie. We were just hitting really good shots into the pin and making some putts."
Recari won the Kia Classic last month for her second LPGA Tour victory.
"The thing is, when you win, you want to keep winning," Recari said. "I didn't feel like I just wanted to sit back and relax and just kind of cruise. Obviously, you want to put yourself in that position again and, hopefully, get more trophies."
Lee-Bentham opened with nine straight pars, then birdied five of the next seven holes in her bogey-free round.
"I just told myself to be patient," Lee-Bentham said. "Putts weren't going in on the front nine, but I was making pars. I knew if I kept making pars the birdies would come."
Jutanugarn's older sister, Moriya, had a 69.
Top-ranked Inbee Park, the Kraft Nabisco winner, was in a group at 70 that included local favorite Michelle Wie and Natalie Gulbis, playing her second tournament following a bout with malaria. Third-ranked Yani Tseng, winless in more than year, had a 71.
The players, caddies, and staff wore red ribbons to honor victims from the Boston Marathon bombings.
Ryan MinkBaltimoreRavens.com Staff Writer
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