Quick Start, Then Hang On

Everything was going splendidly until Hiromi Kobayashi realized she had six birdies in her first eight holes.

“Too many birdies,” Kobayashi said.

After all, this was the Oakmont Country Club, a daunting collection of narrow fairways and tricky greens that was holding the rest of the field at the Los Angeles Women’s Championship close to par.

“I was getting nervous toward the end,” Kobayashi said. “I was trying not to think about birdies.”

When reality brought her back to earth, the Japanese veteran was happy to squeak through the rest of the first round with a string of pars and a single bogey, good enough for a five-under-par 67 and a three-stroke lead in this $650,000 LPGA event in Glendale.

“My irons were a little bit off,” Kobayashi said. But “today’s putting was very good.”

Those blistering first eight holes were an aberration on a day when damp fairways put a damper on low scores.

After the recent rains, players knew better than to expect a repeat of last year’s first round, when Annika Sorenstam tied a course record at 66 and two dozen players broke par.

The drives that bounced for extra yards along Oakmont’s dry fairways last year merely landed with a thud Friday.

“There’s not much roll out there,” Wendy Doolan said.

Doolan shot a 70 to tie for second with Elaine Crosby, Alicia Dibos, Janice Moodie and Karen Weiss. Sorenstam, last year’s player of the year, shot a 71 to join eight other players tied for seventh.

Those scores were relatively sobering for a field that features 95 of the top 100 players on the tour.

“It’s the greens,” said Jill Briles-Hinton, who shot a 75. “They’re tough.”

Weiss explained: “If you get above the pin or even to the sides, it’s a tricky putt.”

Perhaps no one understood that better than Betsy King, the Hall of Famer who started the tournament with an eagle on No. 10 and a birdie on No. 11 but fell victim to a handful of bogeys after she made the turn.

Or Chris Johnson, who watched a birdie putt on No. 7 lip the cup and roll halfway to downtown Glendale, a calamity that led to a three-putt bogey and a two-over 74.

Mindful of such dire possibilities, the field played cautiously for much of the morning.

No one wanted to hit past the pin for that dreaded downhill putt. Anyone who stayed close to par figured to stay close to the leaderboard.

“No one was lighting it up so there wasn’t a person to chase,” Weiss said.

Until Kobayashi teed off just before noon.

Starting on the 10th hole, she gave herself a string of birdie chances by hitting her irons to within a few feet of the pin on the 11th, 12th, 13th and 15th holes. She sank a more difficult 35-foot putt on No. 16.

Heady stuff for a nine-year veteran who has won only twice on the tour, and not since 1993. Kobayashi is not particularly long off the tee but has been striving to hone her putting stroke.

The hard work showed on what may have been her most impressive hole of the day, on No. 7, well after she had cooled off.

Kobayashi found the greenside bunker and hit a wedge to within 10 feet of the cup, leaving herself a putt that broke sharply left. She watched Johnson struggle toward her bogey. She watched Deb Richard miss a short putt on the slippery green.

Then she stepped up and sank her putt to save par.

“I expected more birdies [after the turn], but I couldn’t put too much pressure on myself,” she said. “I just thought to make my putts.”

Good thinking.