14 year old Wongluekiet shares lead

One is a veteran returning to tournament play from back problems, while the other is a 14-year-old amateur who had homework to do after leaving the 18th hole.

Dottie Pepper and Aree Wongluekiet shot 3-under-par 69s in windy conditions today to share the first-round lead in the Safeway LPGA Golf Championship.

Pepper hadn't played in a tournament since withdrawing from the U.S. Women's Open in July. Since then, she had done prescribed back stretches every few hours, and she got on her hands and knees to do them a few times today when she felt it stiffening up.

"I know that it looks odd, but it helps so much,'' she said.

Pepper said the time off from golf was probably good for her.

"I think with the way the schedule is and as many tournaments as we have now, it is nice to take a break,'' she said. "I think it makes you a little hungry to come out and play again.''

The event is the last chance for players to earn enough points to qualify for the U.S. Solheim Cup team, which will face the Europeans next month in Scotland. Pepper's position on the team was already assured, although her back problems had left her status in doubt.

Wongluekiet, the Thai star who lives in Bradenton, Fla., used her final sponsor exemption of the year to play in the tournament. Her twin sister, Naree, shot a 7-over 79 today.

Wongluekiet tied for 10th at the Nabisco Championship in March and said she is getting more comfortable playing in big events.

She said she played a practice round Thursday and was "awful," before going out to the practice range with her coach for three hours. She also repeatedly credited her caddie, Tom Hanson, for her good play.

"I pretty much just hit it where my caddie said to hit it," she said.

Hanson is a columnist for several sports publications who interviewed the Wongluekiet twins this past summer and stayed in touch with them through e-mail and instant messaging

"Two months ago, when they found out they got in the (Safeway event), Aree e-mailed me and said, 'Please don't tell Naree, but I would like you to caddie for me.' She was trying to beat her sister to the punch,'' Hanson laughed.

South Korea's Mi Hyun Kim was second after 70 on the Columbia-Edgewater Country Club course.

The players in the first eight positions on the Solheim Cup points list are safely on the squad, but two positions are still up for grabs and captain Pat Bradley will make two more selections Sunday night.

The winner this weekend will get 30 points, while second place earns 15 points. Just slightly more than five points separate Nancy Scranton at ninth from Kelli Kuehne at 12th.

Of the players on the fringe, Betsy King -- 14th on the point list -- had the best day with a 73. Four others shot 77s, and three others shot 80s.

Pepper started off the day with a birdie and had three more on the front nine en route to a 4-under 32. She bogeyed No. 11, birdied the par-5, 505-yard 12th, then bogeyed No. 14.

Wongluekiet was 2 under through nine holes and added birdies on Nos. 12 and 16. She had a chance on the 17th hole to take the sole lead, but missed a birdie putt, and was a foot shy of making a birdie on a sharp-breaking 20-footer on the last hole.

Pepper was stung on her pinkie finger by a bee on the seventh hole and said she felt her throat tighten up, and her mouth and lips dry up -- just like when she suffered a bee sting two years ago.

She took medicine to ward off the reaction.

"It makes me shaky and sleepy, which is the downside,'' she said.

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