Sorenstam Takes Her Time ... and the Lead

Annika Sorenstam hasn’t won 49 times on the LPGA Tour without the mental toughness to deal with a difficult golf course, so staying patient for 15 holes Friday at El Caballero presented little challenge.

It also paid off.

Sorenstam made birdies on her 16th and 17th holes, shot a four-under-par 68 and holds a one-shot lead over Jill McGill and Meg Mallon after the darkness-shortened first round of the Office Depot Championship Hosted by Amy Alcott in Tarzana.

Officials suspended play because of darkness just before 6:30 p.m. with 15 players still on the course. The first round will resume at 7 a.m. today. None of the players left on the course are under par.

Sorenstam, the top player in the world and defending champion, made the turn in one under and got to two under with a birdie on her 10th hole, the par-five first. She struggled a bit with her driver during the final nine and made some key par saves before taking the lead with her back-to-back birdies.

“That takes experience,” Sorenstam said of staying patient during the round. “I have been many times where I feel like something should drop but it doesn’t. Then you start pushing and you make a bogey or something like that and you get totally upset and lose it.”

Patience and experience seemed to take on added importance on El Caballero. Eight-year tour player McGill and 17-year veteran Mallon are Sorenstam’s closest pursuers.

This came a week after 25-year-old Grace Park broke through for her first major championship and challenges by teenagers Aree Song and Michelle Wie had everyone thinking a changing of the guard was taking place.

Experience didn’t help 29-time tour winner Karrie Webb, who shot 81 and posted the highest score of her LPGA Tour career. Webb, who shot 44 on the front nine, had not previously shot in the 80s in 189 previous starts.

Mallon, who had one of the few rounds without a three-putt on El Caballero’s difficult, fast greens, said youthful fearlessness could be an advantage at times, but could also be a detriment on difficult greens.

“If you miss a couple of those putts, the younger players are spinning a little bit,” Mallon said. “They are pretty aggressive in their putting.”

Song is one of the players who did not finish. She is even through 16 holes. Park was two under through four holes but struggled on the greens and finished with a 73.

McGill, a USC graduate seeking her first LPGA Tour victory, is coming off a bout with shoulder spasms during the final round of the Kraft Nabisco Championship last week. She worked it out with a physiotherapist.

She made six birdies and three bogeys Friday, three of the birdie putts coming from 15, 24 and 30 feet.

“It was nice to see because [my putter] hasn’t been working in about nine years,” McGill said. “It’s nice to see the ball go in the hole.”

Sorenstam led wire-to-wire when she won here last year and likes her position after Friday, especially in a 54-hole event. Her short game helped save several pars.

“It’s kind of a momentum thing,” she said. “If you save it, it almost feels like a birdie so you can move on and the momentum keeps building. So obviously, I’m hoping for that to continue.”