`Good !` Park Seri, Leading with Choi Kyung-Joo

Par 5 holes were good places for Park Seri, who entered into a group of winner candidates from the beginning. Park exercised her characteristic long shots, earning 4 birdies in all the Par 5 holes with good record. She also boasted her precise tee shots in that she missed fairways only twice in the whole round. Park, who started in the afternoon, had difficulty playing golf in the early round because of the inclement weather with rain. Since the green speed became slow, her putts were too short to reach birdies frequently.

Park, who pared the course until the 4th hole, earned a birdie in the 5th hole and then earned 3 birdies in a row in the 7th (Par 5), 8th (Par 4) and 9th (Par 5) holes. In the later round, she earned two birdies in a row in the 13th (Par 4) and 14th (Par 5) holes and then added a birdie in the 16th hole, which is the last long hole.

As the round went on, she found her putting sense succeeding 3 – 4 m putting into the cup as birdies.

`Super Rookie`, Han Hui-Won (Fila Korea) was in the joint 8th place with 68 shots (4 under par (5 birdie, 1 bogie). Han, who is a strong candidate for the best rookie of the year, said in an official interview after the game, ``Although it is difficult for me to pass the preliminary games every Mondays, this also gives me some merits to figure out the golf course beforehand.`` Par, Jie-Un, who scored 3 under par (69 shots), is ranked as joint 18th place with Laurie Kane and leaves a potential to enter into `Top 10`.

Sorenstam (Sweden), who earned 11 wins in 26 competitions of this season, and Karrie Webb (Australia), who are competing rivals against Park, were not good in the first round.

Both golfers were ranked as joint 45th place, where Kim Mi-Hyun (KTF), who is thirsty for a win in this season, was also ranked with 1 under par (71 shot).

Kim Jong-Seok kjs0123@donga.com