Rosales Solid in LPGA-Leading 66

Annika Sorenstam got mad and finished with two birdies. Grace Park got a good break and then ended her round with two bogeys. Both wound up chasing Jennifer Rosales, who played a steady hand Thursday with a five-under-par 66 in the LPGA Championship at Wilmington, Del.

Rosales, who picked up her first LPGA victory last month in Atlanta, took advantage of the par-fives and never came close to a bogey at difficult DuPont Country Club to take a one-shot lead over Karen Stupples, Gloria Park and Chiharu Yamaguchi.

“I hit a lot of fairways. That was the key,” said Rosales, the former NCAA champion from USC. “I missed a lot of putts out there. I kept putting and putting until I made some, and kept going.”

Sorenstam and Park are two shots behind at 68.

Sorenstam missed the fairway on the par-four seventh hole, her 16th of the day, and took a bogey before making birdie on her last two holes.

Park, the Kraft Nabisco winner, got a free drop off a drainage ditch on the par-five 16th, but she bogeyed her last two holes.

“This is not the finish I wanted to have,” Park said. “I’m disappointed and frustrated, but that’s golf. That’s major championships.”

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Hitting it close on hole after hole, Vijay Singh shot an eight-under 63 to take the first-round lead in the Buick Classic at Harrison, N.Y., the final PGA Tour event before the U.S. Open next week at Shinnecock Hills.

Singh, seeking his third victory in the tournament, played his final nine holes -- the front nine on the Westchester Country Club course -- in six-under 30 to take a one-stroke lead over Fredrik Jacobson.

David Frost, the 1992 winner on the hilly, tree-lined course, opened with a 66, and Fred Couples topped a large group at 67. Ernie Els, a two-time Buick Classic champion coming off a victory in the Memorial, was at 68 in a large group that included Davis Love III, David Toms and Padraig Harrington. Masters champion Phil Mickelson opened with a 69.

Singh had nine birdies -- eight from inside 10 feet -- and one bogey.