Sorenstam hangs on for victory

Making her fourth start since returning from disk injuries in her back and neck, Annika Sorenstam outlasted 62nd-seeded Katherine Hull in 20 holes in hazy and humid conditions Thursday at the HSBC Women’s World Match Play Championship at Wykagyl Country Club in New Rochelle, N.Y.

All square after 12 holes, Sorenstam and Hull each won three of the final six holes of regulation. Sorenstam took the 219-yard 13th with a par and won the 16th and 17th with birdies, and the Australian won 14, 15 and 18 with birdies. After halving the first extra hole with a par, Sorenstam won the match with a conceded par on the par-four second. Hull made a double bogey, hitting into two bunkers.

“It was a thriller. There was a lot of drama,” said Sorenstam, a stroke-play winner at Wykagyl in 1998 and 2000.

Top-seeded Lorena Ochoa won her first-round match and No. 2 Karrie Webb, major winners Cristie Kerr and Morgan Pressel and 2006 winner Brittany Lincicome were eliminated.

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Jeff Maggert, who missed the cut in his previous four tournaments, put a putter he has had for “probably 15 or 20 years” and a new set of irons to good use at Milwaukee’s Brown Deer Park, shooting a seven-under-par 63 to tie rookie Brendon de Jonge for the lead in the first round of the U.S. Bank Championship.

Garrett Willis is third at six under. Tour veteran Robert Gamez is tied for fourth at five under with Jay Williamson, who made the field on a sponsor exemption. Jesper Parnevik is one of five players tied for sixth at four under.