Meg Mallon, who has won 10 LPGA titles this decade, shot a 6-under-par 66 today to take the Nabisco Dinah Shore first-round lead.

Mallon held a two-shot edge over Kris Tschetter after 18 holes of the women's first major championship of the year.

Defending champion Pat Hurst was in a group another shot back at 69. Hurst, six months pregnant, birdied the final hole to stay close to the lead.

Helen Alfredsson, the 1993 Dinah Shore champion, also was 3-under, along with Kelly Robbins and Janice Moodie.

Annika Sorenstam, the tour's Player of the Year three of the past four years but winless in her four 1999 starts, shot a 70 over the par-72, 6,460-yard Mission Hills Country Club course.

Karrie Webb got off to a slow start, shooting a 73 to immediately fall seven shots off the pace. Webb, the dominant player so far this year, has won three of her last four tournaments, including a victory at Phoenix last weekend.

Although she has 12 titles to her credit, Webb has never won a major event.

Si Re Pak also had a first-round 73. A 21-year-old from Korea who seems to be struggling after winning the LPGA Championship, U.S. Women's Open and two other titles last year as a rookie, Pak has missed the cut three times this year and not finished higher than 18th.

Mallon, 35, has won two majors in her career, but both those came in her best year, 1991. She won four times that year, including the LPGA Championship and the Women's Open. She won twice in both 1993 and 1996, once last year, then took the Naples Memorial title earlier this year.

Mallon had a bogey-free tour at Mission Hills, with her accurate iron shots leaving her many birdie opportunities from 10 feet and closer.

"I just had one of those rounds," she said. "My iron play was perfect and I didn't miss a fairway. It was an absolutely perfect day for golf, overcast and not a breath of wind.

"I love this event and this course."

Tschetter, whose only tour win was in 1992, did all her scoring on the first eight holes, with an eagle, three birdies and a bogey. She settled for pars the rest of the way, but said that she wasn't disappointed.

"Anytime you shoot a 68 in a major, you have to be happy," Tschetter said. "I just didn't do anything on the back.''

Alfredsson, who finished in a third-place tie last year, knocked an 8-iron into the cup on the par-3, 141-yard No. 14 for her third career ace.

"It came in a critical situation," said Alfredsson, who three-putted from 45 feet for bogey on the second hole, then had 12 consecutive pars before the hole-in-one abruptly moved her to 1-under.

Alfredsson then birdied the next two holes, including making a 20-foot putt on No. 15, to move into contention.