D'Alessio takes two shot lead

Diana D'Alessio followed Betsy King's footsteps into golf, to Furman University and onto the LPGA Tour.

Today, it was D'Alessio who was leading King and the rest of the field at the du Maurier Classic as the tour rookie shot a 5-under-par 67 in the first round of the LPGA's final major championship of the year.

D'Alessio's career-best round gave her a two-stroke lead over Se Ri Pak, Annika Sorenstam, Kristi Albers, Marisa Baena, and Tracy Hanson.

Karrie Webb, seeking to become the first golfer since 1986 to win three majors in one year, shot a 71 at the 6,403-yard Royal Ottawa Golf Club.

D'Alessio said she was a 13-year-old riding horses competitively when she watched King win the 1988 Women's Kemper Open in Hawaii on television. She became smitten by golf, and adopted King as her idol because they both were sportsminded girls from the Northeast.

"They just kept talking about Betsy,'' D'Alessio said. "Betsy played field hockey. Betsy played basketball, and she was from Pennsylvania. It was like: 'I want to be her.' "

She told her father to sell her show horse, named War Melody, and began practicing golf every day. After D'Alessio began winning junior golf tournaments in New Jersey (her home state), New York, and Connecticut, she accepted a golf scholarship to Furman in South Carolina because that's where King went to college.

After two years on the Futures Tour, D'Alessio qualified conditionally for the LPGA Tour for 2000 by tying for 46th in the final qualifying tournament last year.

D'Alessio said that since she's been on tour, she hasn't told King about what an inspiration she has been in her life because "I'm kind of scared to.''

When that story was related by reporters today to King, the Hall of Famer said she was flattered -- to some degree.

"I guess it means you're getting old,'' said King, who shot a 1-over 73 today. "It's like when you get people coming up to you and saying, 'I've been following you since I was a kid.' "

D'Alessio missed the cut in four of the 12 tour events she has played this year. Her $43,693 in winnings was thanks mainly to the $31,072 she won for finishing fourth in the Hawaiian Ladies Open in February. She has made only $5,094 since April.

But the 25-year-old native of Dover, N.J., said her "lull'' from playing on Saturdays and Sundays has been mainly due to a mental battle over maintaining self-confidence throughout an entire round rather than hitting the ball poorly.

Today, she said she stepped on every tee "knowing that I could make birdie.''

Starting on the back nine in one of the first threesomes off the tee in the morning, D'Alessio made birdie putts of 15 feet on No. 10, 40 feet on No. 11, and 2 feet on No. 14 to start the day at the top of the leaderboard.

An errant drive on 15 cost her a stroke, but she made a 4-footer for birdie on No. 1, chipped in from about 25 feet on No. 2 and made a 36-foot putt for another birdie on No. 5. After making a bogey from the sand on the par-3 8th, D'Alessio closed out her round with a two-putt birdie on the short par-5 9th.

"Everything went my way today,'' she said. "I made a lot of putts. I've never had 23 putts before in my life. That's my career-low putting for a day.''

Those who played in the afternoon had to contend with winds and, because of a nearly two-hour rain delay, soggy fairways and unpredictable greens.

Sorenstam, tied with Webb for most tour wins this year with five, hasn't won a major since the 1996 U.S. Open and has often played herself out of contention in the first rounds of those events. Not so today, with a solid five-birdie, two-bogey round which would have been even better if she had converted birdie opportunities on 16, 17, and 18 after the rain delay.

"It's a great first round,'' Sorenstam said. "It's the best first round I've had in a major in a long time.''

Albers, who is struggling with a bad back, said she stretched and "did everything that I possibly could during the delay to stay warm'' except hit balls. Once play resumed, she had two birdies.

Baena, a Colombia native in her second year on the tour, would have had second place to herself except for a bogey on 18.

Pak made four birdie putts under 10 feet and had one bogey, but said she spent most of her round scrambling for pars or trying to stay out of trouble.

"I don't have any kind of big problem today,'' said Pak, who is trying to win her third career major and first since the 1998 U.S. Women's Open. "It's just OK, but it's the consistency. That's why I have a lot of up-and-down.''

Webb would claim a $1 million bonus for winning the du Maurier and becoming the first women's golfer since Pat Bradley 14 years ago to win three majors in one year. She previously won the Nabisco Championship and the U.S. Women's Open.

Juli Inkster, who won the year's other major at the LPGA Championship, shot an even-par 72 today. Prince Edward Island native Lorie Kane, Canada's best hope in the only tour event played on Canadian soil, also shot 72.

DIVOTS: Either Inkster or Webb have won the last six majors dating to the 1999 LPGA Championship. ... Martha Nause, the 1994 du Maurier champion, withdrew because of back spasms. ... Emilee Klein withdrew with the flu, clearing a spot in the field for Oh-Yeon Kwon. But Kwon lasted only five holes before withdrawing with a recurring wrist injury.

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