Uribe pumps up U.S. Open

EDINA, Minn. -- If a player wears red like a Tiger, makes birdies in bunches like a Tiger and celebrates with fist pumps like a Tiger, then is it a Tiger?

No, it was actually Maria Jose Uribe, and she was demonstrating some of the best Tiger Woods-like qualities in Thursday’s opening round of the 63rd U.S. Women’s Open.

Veteran Pat Hurst and teen Ji Young Oh took the first-round lead at six-under-par 67 on the rolling fairways and tilted greens of Interlachen Country Club, but the surprise of the day had to be the flashy Uribe, only 18, from Bucaramanga, Colombia, the Women’s U.S. Amateur champion and a freshman at UCLA.

It was a six-birdie outburst for Uribe, who enjoyed a pleasant day in the company of Cristie Kerr and another of her idols, Lorena Ochoa, and outplayed them both with a four-under 69.

Uribe says she’s a huge fan of Woods and although she employs a very Tiger-like fist pump on the greens, she isn’t sure of her ultimate inspiration for those types of moves.

“They just come from my body, I don’t know, maybe it’s the Latin fire that they say,” she said. “It’s just you really don’t think I’m doing those stuff, they just come around.”

Sure, it was only the first day, but after the opening round, there was one big question that needed to be answered.

Ji Young Oh?

Take me to your co-leader, Oh, that’s who, a 19-year-old qualifier from Seoul playing in her second U.S. Open and her sixth LPGA Tour event of the year. At the end of her round, Oh is more than an exclamation, she is in front of some of the more recognizable stars.

Hurst, 39 and in her 14th year as a pro, was six under in a seven-hole stretch and seemed to prove her last two events -- both missed cuts -- were aberrations.

Song-Hee Kim, another 19-year-old from South Korea, is third after a 68.

If Ochoa was supposed to start quickly, she didn’t and had to birdie three of the last five holes to get to even-par 73. “I think [the scoring] it will come back, the U.S. Open is always tough and I’m OK where I am, I guess,” Ochoa said.

Two other big-timers didn’t go low. Kerr, the defending champion, managed a 72 and three-time champion Annika Sorenstam continued her farewell tour with a 75.

Oh is clearly a surprise co-leader, but few could have picked Uribe, who is tied with Louise Friberg and Ji-Yai Shin, to be so close.

Last year, Uribe beat Amanda Blumenherst, the defending NCAA Division I champion, in a 36-hole playoff at Crooked Stick to win the U.S. Women’s Amateur. She’s the third UCLA women’s player to have that title, joining Jane Park and Kay Cockerill.

She has qualified for the Open the last two years but missed the cut both times.

But that had nothing to do with how she played Thursday. Uribe even managed to birdie the 15th when she actually mis-hit a shot. “I pulled it and hit it close and I’m like ‘What?’ I was just laughing out there,” she said. “It’s like Tiger’s round in the U.S. Open on Saturday, like he makes it. Those days that everything goes right.”

Laura Davies opened with a 70 and is tied with Paula Creamer, Helen Alfredsson, Catriona Matthew and Linda Wessberg.

There is more at stake for Davies this week than meets the eye. She is two points shy of qualifying for the Hall of Fame, and a victory would get her there.

Michelle Wie has had better days, and a lot better ninth holes than what she experienced Thursday. She was one over through eight, then drove into the rough on her way to a quintuple-bogey nine.

Wie birdied the last hole for an eight-over 81, unable to recover from one really bad hole.

“Nine was a blur,” she said, describing the contours of the green this way: “Like a Pringles chip.”

It was a disaster from start to finish. Her fifth shot was a putt from above the hole, but Wie judged it poorly and the ball rolled off the green onto the fringe. She chipped from there but couldn’t get the ball to check and it rolled right back to where she was standing. She chipped on with her seventh and two-putted for a nine.

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thomas.bonk@latimes.com