Amateur Leads, but It’s Not Wie

A teenage amateur with a penchant for giggles and tears, whose father is her caddie, tore up Orchards Golf Club on Thursday to grab the lead after a thunderstorm-delayed first day at the U.S. Women’s Open.

Oh yes, Michelle Wie had a decent day too.

But though the crowd at South Hadley, Mass., was much larger for the 14-year-old from Hawaii, the score was much better for 18-year-old Brittany Lincicome from Florida’s Gulf Coast. Lincicome, with three birdies and an eagle on the back nine, tied the Women’s Open record for an amateur with a five-under-par 66, one shot better than veteran Patricia Meunier-Lebouc, who brought her 5-month-old daughter to the tournament.

Wie, the baby of the sport who is a king-sized magnet for attention and even some controversy over the exemption she was granted to play this week, needed an eagle-three on her final hole to shoot an even-par 71.

Thunderstorms suspended play for three hours, leaving Annika Sorenstam among 75 players who had to return this morning to finish the first round. Sorenstam was two under with three holes to play.

Lincicome, one of 16 teenagers in the event, made the turn at par 36. “I don’t even know what happened after that,” she exclaimed with a giggle.

What happened was that she birdied the 10th, 11th and 13th holes, then made the shot of the day on No. 15, a 377-yard par four.

From 125 yards, she punched out under the trees, and it rolled into the cup.

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Dottie Pepper, 38, who had 17 victories on the LPGA Tour, retired because of injuries.

Pepper, 38, was given a special exemption for the U.S. Women’s Open, in part because she had to withdraw the last two years because of neck and shoulder injuries. She had to withdraw again this week, went to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota and discovered a pinched nerve that caused numbness in her face and down to her shoulder.

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Loren Roberts shot a seven-under 64, matching his best round of the year, and held on for the first-round lead at the Western Open at Lemont, Ill. Former champion Robert Allenby is one stroke back after birdies on his last three holes, the only one to make a charge in the afternoon.

“I played real solid, tee to green,” Roberts, 49, said of his bogey-free round. “I hit the ball extremely well as far as putting it where I wanted it and hit a lot of greens. I drove the ball in the fairway just about every hole. If you’re going to make some putts, it equates to a low score.”

Reigning British Open champion Ben Curtis leads a group three strokes back at 67. Defending champion Tiger Woods broke out a new, graphite driver, but it wasn’t the answer for his sluggish game. He closed out a lackluster round with a bogey on the final hole, finishing at 70.

Woods’ caddie said he was wrong to kick over a news photographer’s camera during the U.S. Open, blaming his snap decision on hearing too many clicks from too many cameras at the wrong time.

“I lost my cool,” Steve Williams said Thursday in a telephone interview from the Western Open. “I shouldn’t have done that.”

But he offered no apologies for taking a camera away from a fan at Shinnecock Hills, and no guarantee that he wouldn’t do that again.

“I’m not being a bully,” Williams said. “I’m just doing what I have to do to make our jobs easier.”