A Long Day Ends in a Tie

Kim Williams has never won in 10 years on the LPGA Tour, putting her 32 victories behind Beth Daniel. But for now they are tied for the lead in the U.S. Women’s Open.

Williams, better known for being hit in the neck with a ricocheting bullet in 1994 than for her golf, and Daniel were the only players to break par in Thursday’s first round, shooting a one-under-par 69 in dreadfully slow play on a Pine Needles course jacked up to U.S. Open conditions--fast, firm greens and thick, deep rough.

They were one stroke ahead of defending champion Annika Sorenstam, Michele Redman, Kris Tschetter, Brandie Burton, Jenny Lidback and Japanese amateur Riko Higashio.

Nancy Lopez, trying to win her first U.S. Open, shot a 77. Laura Davies and Karrie Webb, both two-time winners this year, both shot 74.

A series of bizarre rulings involving everything from the blimp-shaped balloon that carries TV antennas to tree roots and the more routine out-of-bounds calls backed up play and created the kind of nearly six-hour rounds common to public courses on weekends.

“I don’t see a reason why it should take this long,” Sorenstam said. “What did it take? Five and a half hours?”

The group of Lopez, Betsy King and Jane Geddes--the next to the last of the 50 threesomes--waited 19 minutes to hit on the second tee and 29 minutes on No. 5.

Sorenstam made her only two bogeys of the day on those holes.

“You lose your rhythm a little bit,” she said. “It’s always hard to start over and get back the rhythm.”

Williams got a break by teeing off at 9:20, the 15th group of the day, and played in about four hours.

“I made a lot of putts,” said Williams, who opened her round with a birdie, a double bogey and a birdie but took the up-and-down start in stride.

She closed her round with a birdie on No. 18 after hitting a seven-iron to 15 feet.

“My caddie said, ‘Let’s get this one’ and I did,” Williams said.

Daniel, playing in the third from the last group, also got to one under with a birdie on No. 18., one of three birdies she made on the back nine.

“Over five hours of golf is not exactly what I would call ideal,” Daniel said. “But it’s part of what you have to deal with in a U.S. Open.”

Even par may turn out to be a very good score in this Open, especially if the wind keeps whipping around the way it did Thursday and if there is no rain to soften the greens.

“The greens are really firm out there and getting faster,” Sorenstam said. “There are a lot of tricky shots around the greens.”

Williams, who is sponsored by Bullet Golf and carries a bag that says “Bullet” on the side of it, is a little dismayed at being known mostly for being hit by a stray bullet outside a pharmacy in Ohio.

“You know, I cannot get rid of this bullet thing,” she said. “It’s sad.”

The USGA probably would like to get rid of any memory of the first round of this Open.