Park, 17, Is Off to a Good Start

Angela Park finished the first round of the Kraft Nabisco Championship and the first thing she did was cool off.

Park teed off in brisk temperatures at 7:39 a.m., but the temperature had reached near 80 at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage by the time she was done. Park wanted to shed her black rain pants during the round, but Park’s caddie, her swing coach Don Brown, suggested otherwise.

“He said, ‘No, don’t take them off, they’re good luck,’ ” said Park, 17, a senior at Torrance High.

So she sweated through her back nine, but it was worth it. She shot four-under-par 68 and is in fourth place after the first round of the LPGA’s first major championship of the year. She is the low amateur after one round and trails only Michelle Wie, 16, in the race for low teen.

That might come as a surprise in a field that also includes young stars Paula Creamer, Morgan Pressel and Ai Miyazato, but it’s no surprise to Park, who said she set a lofty goal of placing in the top 20 after receiving a sponsors’ exemption.

“I think every amateur wants to make the cut,” she said. “I set my goals a little higher. You have to set high goals.”

Park started with a bogey after missing the first fairway, but she didn’t miss another fairway and played bogey-free the rest of the way.

“Nothing she does surprises me,” Brown said. “She got into her rhythm and stayed there.”

Park, No. 2 in the Golfweek national girls’ rankings, has played two other professional events. She qualified for the 2005 U.S. Women’s Open and missed the cut and tied for 62nd at the LPGA Tour stop in Phoenix two weeks ago after receiving a sponsors’ exemption.

The 68 is her best round in those events and it’s also affirmation for Park, a semifinalist in the 2005 U.S. Women’s Amateur who has decided to bypass college and will turn professional after the Kraft Nabisco.

She finished fifth at the Futures Tour qualifying tournament and planned to play as an amateur until her 18th birthday in August, but the Futures Tour lowered its minimum age to 17 and Park will make her pro debut April 21 in Frisco, Texas.

“If you want to be good at one thing, you have to stick to one thing,” she said.

“You can’t study and golf. There’s not enough time. I wanted to go the golf way and that’s the way I’m going.”

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A recent redesign of the lake surrounding the 18th hole means the winner Sunday will be able to celebrate by jumping into a cleaner pond.

A portion of the pond has been sectioned off and filled with cement so that it can regularly be cleaned. Past winners have complained about the murky water, and Dottie Pepper contracted a virus a few weeks after her winner’s leap in 1999. Doctors traced it to the pond.