Hanson opens narrow advantage

Tracy Hanson is the surprise leader after the opening round of the Williams Championship after firing a bogey-free 6-under-par 64 on Friday at the Tulsa Country Club.

Battling a field that includes Annika Sorenstam, Hanson produced one of her best rounds of a disappointing season and has a one-shot lead over Cristie Kerr.

"I hit the ball well, I hit my driver well, so I think I only missed maybe two fairways," said Hanson, who has missed six of 20 cuts this year, including each of her last two starts.

"It's much easier to hit it closer to the pin from the fairways than the rough, and that is the first key. The second key is I did hit some good iron shots. I was able to attack the pins and I felt good with my putter."

Hanson has finished no better than 12th this season and is winless in eight years on the LPGA Tour.

France's Patricia Meunier-Lebouc, coming off her first career win at last week's State Farm Classic, heads an international quartet at 4-under. Sweden's Liselotte Neumann, Korea's Grace Park and Scotland's Catriona Matthew also opened with 66s.

Playing for the first time since missing the cut at the Women's British Open, Sorenstam shot a 68 and is tied for seventh with Maggie Will and Kris Tschetter.

Hanson had just 10 rounds in the 60s of the 62 she played this season. She started No. 11 with a 14-foot birdie putt at the opening hole and quickly got to 2-under with a four-footer at the 457-yard third hole.

Strong iron play at the eighth and 11th holes set up a pair of three-foot birdies, Hanson hit a 7-iron within 12 feet at the par-4 15th to get to 5-under. She went with a wedge to set up a 21-foot putt for her final birdie at the 535-yard 16th hole.

"I saw some low scores out there from the morning round, so I knew if I wanted to be in contention, I needed to play well," Hanson said. "We've got two more days and I'm sure if the weather stays like this, it's going to be scoreable."

That weather featured sweltering temperatures that caused problems for Hanson when she got sunscreen in her eye.

"It usually happens once or twice a day," she joked. "The heat, it was hot. I used a sun umbrella, which I think helped, pretty much took it out on No. 1 and used it off and on all day. I think it breaks up the intensity of the heat."

Kerr would have had a share of the lead but two-putted from 10 feet for a bogey on the final hole.

"I am a little upset at the last hole," Kerr said. "That's just a hole. I mean, I hit 17 greens and I had in the low 30s in putts, and that's pretty good when you're hitting that amount of greens. And I was very, very happy with the way I was hitting the ball, executing, thinking."

Sorenstam is one of 13 players in this week's field who also will compete later this month in the Solheim Cup team competition in Minnesota. The American squad has nine of its 12 Solheim Cup members in the field. The only ones missing are Laura Diaz, Michele Redman and Kelly Robbins.

Defending champion Gloria Park of Korea struggled to a 2-over 72 and is eight shots back. Last year, she claimed her first career victory by erasing a five-stroke deficit in the final round.

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